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PERMAFROST - Seventh International Conference (Proceedings),

Yellowknife (Canada), Collection Nordicana No 55, 1998

PIPE UPLIFT RESISTANCE TESTING IN FROZEN SOIL

J.F. (Derick) Nixon
Nixon Geotech Ltd
Box 9, Site 9, RR6
Calgary, Alberta T2M 4L5
Canada
e-Mail: derickn@cadvision.com

Abstract
The design of buried chilled pipelines in frost heaving terrain requires a knowledge of the uplift resistance of
pipes buried in frozen ground. Higher uplift resistances will increase the severity of pipe curvatures and strains
at frozen-unfrozen interfaces.
Twelve tests have been carried out in three different test programs, that provide the general shape of the loaddisplacement curve, and the effects of backfill type, cover depth, displacement rate and soil temperature. This
paper includes a summary of 5 previous tests, and interprets the results of all 12 tests carried out to date.
Interesting crack patterns in the frozen soil around the pipe were observed, and their role in limiting peak
and residual uplift resistance is discussed. Correlations have been developed that will allow pipeline designers
to establish the load-displacement characteristics of a buried pipe displacing upwards through frozen soil, as
required for structural analysis of chilled pipes in discontinuous permafrost.

Introduction
A large diameter pipeline may be subject to frost
heave displacements of a meter or more, if the pipe is
buried in initially unfrozen soil, and is operated continuously at temperatures significantly below 0C.
Considerable study has been carried out into predicting
frost heave itself (Nixon, 1991), and future laboratory
and field studies will undoubtedly further refine predictions.
Another major input required for frost heave-pipeline
interaction analysis is the uplift resistance offered to
upward motion of the pipe by the frozen soil. The relatively sudden transition from unfrozen (stable) soil to
unfrozen (heaving) soil may result in large pipe bending strains, if the resistance to uplift in the stable frozen
zone is sufficiently high. If a cylindrical pipe is forced
upward through a mass of frozen soil, then initially the
soil around and above the pipe will deform as a continuum, according to the elastic and viscous properties of
the soil. At some point, tensile and shear stresses
induced in the soil may be sufficient to cause cracks to
propagate through the frozen soil. After this point, the
load on the pipe will likely decrease as the pipe displacement increases. Resistance to upward pipe motion
is now governed partly by the weight of the rectangular
soil blocks on either side of the pipe, and partly by the

flexural resistance of he two cantilever soil "beams"

being lifted by the pipe.
Previous tests carried out in the Calgary lab of
Imperial Oil Resources Ltd are described by Nixon and
Hazen (1993) for a 140 mm diameter model pipe in a
frozen clayey silt. A total of five tests investigated the
effects of displacement rate, and two soil temperatures.
Peak uplift resistance (as represented by pipe contact
stress, the load divided by the plan area of the pipe in
contact with the soil) ranged from 600 to 1500 kPa,
depending on soil temperature and displacement rate.
A pronounced peak and post-peak reduction in load
was noted in all tests. Cracking in the soil adjacent to
and over the pipe was observed at around peak load.
Peak uplift resistance was rate dependent, and slower
displacement rates resulted in lower uplift resistance.
Surface warming, simulating natural summer temperature cycling, was extremely effective in reducing the
uplift resistance experienced by the pipe. The tensile
strength of the frozen soil as measured in a separate set
of uniaxial tests was time dependent, and equal to
about 400 kPa for a time to failure of about 2 days.
Uniaxial tensile strains at failure were about 1.0%, and
appeared to be largely independent of the time to
failure.

J.F. (Derick) Nixon

821

Table 1. Summary of uplift test results

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The 7th International Permafrost Conference

One other recent test for uplift resistance for a 270 mm

diameter pipe at the Canada-France frost heave test site
was reported by Foriero and Ladanyi (1994). This test
used a hydraulic air pressure method of applying load
to the ends of the pipe, and therefore did not achieve as
uniform a rate of pipe displacement as this program. In
addition, some of the soil over the pipe may have been
desiccated, and therefore may not have as high a
strength as saturated soils. The cover depth was 30 cm,
and the soil/pipe temperature was around -2.0C. An
average displacement rate for the pipe prior to peak
uplift was 1.0 mm/day. The peak load when normalized with respect to the plan area of the pipe was
480 kPa, which is very similar to the range of values
reported here.

surface, while maintaining a controlled pipe temperature of around -5C as before. Test 7 investigated the
effects of shallower pipe burial on the uplift resistance
characteristics of the pipe-soil system. Test 8 used a
larger (317 mm diameter) pipe. Test 9 repeated the same
test at a warmer soil temperature of -2.5C, and Test 10
investigated the effects of thawing and re-freezing from
the soil surface, prior to testing. A final tests series
funded by NEB was started late in 1993, and explored
the effects of colder temperatures (Test 11), smaller pipe
size (Test 12), and a more plastic clay soil (Test 13).
A summary of the background data for each of the
more recent seven tests is given on Table 1, together
with the initial 5 tests published by Nixon and Hazen
(1993).

Test equipment and scope

Summary of new test results
Details of the test equipment are covered in more
detail in ERCL (1991) and in Nixon and Hazen (1993).
The bulk Calgary clayey silt sample was blended with
about 22% water by dry weight. The protruding ends of
the pipe were connected to the reaction frame and loading assembly. The unique aspect of the loading system
involved two mechanical actuators (screw jacks) rated
for a total load of 20 tonnes each. These were turned by
a 1/4 HP DC motor with variable power supply, and a
gear reduction system. The gear reduction system was
designed to achieve a near constant displacement rate
of around 1 mm/day or less, which is similar to the
maximum rate of displacement experienced by a pipe
under field conditions. The gear reducer system was a
120,000:1 triple reduction worm gear unit. A hydraulic
loading system was discarded in favor of the mechanical system, due to potential problems with unequal
loading, variable displacement rates, and tilting of the
pipe. Load cells and displacement transducers were
used to monitor end loads and displacements automatically during the test.
Nine thermistors in the soil, cold room and pipe were
used to monitor temperatures. An array of surface dial
gauges was used to measure soil surface displacement
in later tests, at three different planes at right angles to
the pipe. Later tests also used an array of colored pins
embedded in one exposed end of the soil to monitor
displacement vectors in the soil during the test. The
data acquisition system used was an interactive program for the PC that allows regular sampling of various
sensors. A real time display on the PC screen was
obtained during testing.
Test 1 was the control test using uniform silt at -5.5C.
Test 2 studied the effects of re-worked backfill over the
pipe. Test 4 used a warmer soil temperature, and Test 5
involved a much slower displacement rate (Nixon and
Hazen, 1993). Test 6 applied a warming cycle to the soil

A summary of load displacement curves for most of

the tests is given on Figure 1. The results have been normalized with respect to the peak uplift load, and the
displacement at peak load, to allow better comparison
of load-displacement curves. The similarity of the initial
segment of the load-displacement curves is evident,
considering the widely different test conditions. This
has prompted some simplifications in later discussion
of generalizing the load-displacement response for
analysis. The mechanical actuator system maintained
very uniform displacement rates over long time periods, and is far superior to any degree of control that
could be obtained by any reasonable hydraulically
applied displacement system.
Figure 2 shows a typical contour plot of vertical soil
displacement generated from the array of pins embedded in the vertical end plane of the soil in Test 12. Most
of the soil displacements are confined to a zone of about
one pipe diameter on either side of the pipe. Very little
soil deformation occurs more than a fraction of a pipe
diameter below the pipe. Figure 3 shows the pattern of
surface soil displacements observed at one end plane
during test 13 on the clay soil. The soil displacements
peak suddenly at the vertical crack that usually forms
directly over the pipe center-line. Figure 4 show the
typical soil crack pattern mapped at the end of Test 13.
Two cracks radiate laterally from the pipe mid-height,
and a further vertical crack develops at the soil surface,
and propagates downwards at the pipe center-line.
The effect of greatly reduced applied displacement
rate is shown on Figure 5. The initial part of the loaddisplacement curve is identical with the faster displacement rate, and appears to be independent with the rate
of load application. However, the peak load is significantly reduced from the control (faster rate) test.
Figure 6 shows the effect of shallower burial on the
J.F. (Derick) Nixon

823

Figure 1.Normalized load-displacement curves

Figure 2. Contours of vertical displacement for end of Test 12.

shape of the load-displacement curve. The peak is very

much reduced, and the residual, or post-peak load is
even further reduced. If feasible, this would suggest a
very effective method of uplift resistance reduction
under full scale conditions. Figure 7 shows the important effects of soil/pipe temperature on peak load.
Again, the initial (pre-peak) segment of the loading

824

curve appears nearly independent of temperature.

However, the peak resistance is strongly dependent on
temperature, due to greater soil strengths and lower
creep rates at colder temperatures.
When the peak load is normalized with respect to
plan contact area, the effects of pipe diameter are not

The 7th International Permafrost Conference

Figure 3. Soil surface displacement pattern at end plane - Test 13.

Figure 4. Soil crack pattern mapped at end of Test 13.

J.F. (Derick) Nixon

825

Figure 5. Effect of slow displacement rate on load displacement curve.

Figure 6. Effect of burial depth on load vs. displacement for test 7.

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The 7th International Permafrost Conference

Figure 7. Effect of temperature on load displacement curve.

Figure 8. Effect of soil type on load displacement curve.

J.F. (Derick) Nixon

827

Figure 9. Effect of pipe displacement rate on peak pipe contact pressure.

clear from the testing. As shown on Table 1, no clear

trend with pipe diameter alone is apparent. Finally, the
effects of soil type are shown on Figure 8. A more plastic soil type was obtained from a site in Edmonton, and
the properties of both the Edmonton and Calgary soils
are provided on Table 2.
The post-peak loading curves are very similar, but the
peak resistances are quite different. The more plastic
clay soil exhibited a much more ductile type of behavior than the more brittle silt soil. A near-constant pipe
load was maintained for a longer period of the test on
the clay soil, and this is characteristic of soils that exhibit secondary creep (constant strain rate at a constant
stress level). It appears that all things being equal,
higher clay contents will result in lower peak uplift
resistance.

A major unknown is whether the frozen soil following

loading, cracking and load reduction can re-heal and
subject the pipe to a similar high load year after year on
a seasonal basis. Test 10 was therefore a repeat of Test 8,
with the soil structural changes as described above
incorporated in the soil mass around and over the pipe.
The peak end load experienced in the final test was
about 60 kN, or about three-quarters of the 80 kN peak
load observed in the control test 8 on the large diameter
pipe. The shape of the load displacement curves for the
two tests are similar, however. This indicates that there
is a significant reduction in peak load after thaw and refreezing, and this can be expected in the second and
subsequent years on the backfill around a pipeline
heaving under field conditions. Whether continued
reductions in peak load will continue is not known, but
it is likely that further reductions after the second

Table 2. Properties of soils tested

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The 7th International Permafrost Conference

Figure 10.Correlation for displacement at peak load.

freeze-thaw cycle would not be as significant as the

reduction following the first freeze-thaw cycle.
It is further noted that even though the cracked soil
structure is still present in the frozen soil during the
second loading period, there is still a significant peak to
post-peak drop-off in load with increasing pipe
displacements.

Analysis of results
One of the primary goals of this program is to provide
input parameters for structural analysis of a buried
chilled pipeline, crossing interfaces between unfrozen
and frozen soil zones. Some of the important issues
include the scaling from smaller model pipes to larger,
full scale pipes in the field, the effects of different soil
temperatures, the effects of different burial depths, and
seasonal thermal effects of surface warming, thawing
and re-healing effects in the soil. Some functions for
pipe uplift resistance are proposed that can be used to
accommodate the above-mentioned effects.
In order to compare results from different tests where
the pipe diameter or the length of pipe embedded in
the soil might be different, the peak load on the pipe

was normalized by dividing the load by the plan area

of the pipe embedded in the soil, i.e. the product of the
pipe diameter and the embedded length. In this way, a
pipe contact pressure was obtained in kPa, that could
be related to different controlling variables, as summarized on Table 1. The peak pipe contact pressure so calculated was further normalized with respect to burial
depth ratio and soil temperature parameter (1-T).
The pipe contact pressure function expresses that
peak pipe stress is related to Dc/d and (1-T). Therefore,
the pipe contact pressure function has been defined as:
Wp / { Dc/d (1-T) }

[1]

where Wp is the peak pipe contact pressure as defined

previously; and Dc is the depth of cover over the pipe.
The strength of frozen fine grained soils is dependent
on the rate of strain. As observed in the tensile testing
described in Nixon and Hazen (1993), the peak strength
or resistance is a strong, non-linear function of the time
to failure, or the rate of strain application. The theoretical work of Foriero and Ladanyi (1994) also suggests
that peak uplift stress should be related to normalized
displacement rate via a power law relationship.

J.F. (Derick) Nixon

829

Figure 9 shows a plot of a pipe contact pressure function against a normalized displacement rate, defined as
the applied pipe displacement rate, Sdot, divided by the
pipe diameter, d. A best fit regression line is shown,
providing the peak contact pressure function. The Caen
test on the 270 mm pipe reported by Foriero and
Ladanyi (1994) is also shown for comparison on
Figure 9. The agreement between the normalized
results is quite reasonable, considering the different soil
types and loading methods.
The tests from the present program carried out with
the larger pipe (i.e., tests 8 and 9) plot somewhat lower
than the equivalent test data for the smaller pipe. This
suggests one of two or more possibilities, i.e. (a) the test
configuration used in the larger pipe tests more closely
approximated a plane stress condition, rather than the
plane strain condition approached in the first 7 tests, or
(b) pipe uplift resistance is not directly or linearly related to pipe diameter, but is rather related to some nonlinear function of pipe diameter. The displacement at
which the peak contact pressure is achieved is plotted
with peak load on Figure 10. An approximately linear
relationship is obtained, suggesting that the initial slope
of the load-displacement curve is not heavily dependent on the variables discussed above.
Finally, the post-peak or residual load varies between
one-quarter to one-half of the peak load at large pipe
displacements. A simple and conservative estimate of
the post-peak load based on the results of Table 1
would be to assume the post-peak load falls to one-half
of the peak load at a displacement of 3 times Y max.
Another approach would be to develop a general function for pre-peak and post-peak load with
displacement.
Referring to Nixon and Hazen (1993), and Zhu and
Carbee (1987), the tensile strength is a function of the
time to failure, and the estimated tensile strength for a
failure time of 7-10 days (typical of many of the uplift
resistance tests) would be around 300-350 kPa. The
peak uplift resistance, when expressed as a stress, is
typically 2 to 4 times this value, and this is similar to
results that might be anticipated from charted solutions
for stresses around underground openings available in
the literature. However, no clear trend is apparent, due
to the different test conditions such as burial depth, soil
temperature, etc, and the effects of the rigid pipe
embedded in the frozen soil mass.
It would be necessary to carry out a series of finite element stress analyses to determine the relationships
between these parameters, and reconcile the observed
uplift resistance-pipe displacement response with the
more fundamental strength and stress-strain properties

830

of the frozen silt soil. Additional model uplift testing

should include testing on polycrystalline ice, in order to
provide a bound on the behavior of high ice content
frozen soils.

Summary and conclusions

A special loading device and soil container to measure
pipe uplift resistance in frozen soil were used to complete a series of 12 tests that have investigated the
effects of different displacement rates, pipe diameters,
soil temperatures, and surface thermal history.
A pronounced peak load and post-peak reduction in
load is present in all tests, although warmer temperatures and slower displacement rates seem to result in
less pronounced post-peak reductions in load.
Cracking in the soil commences from the soil surface
over the pipe, propagating downwards towards the
pipe as the test progresses. Meanwhile, at some displacement at or just after peak load, cracks propagated
outwards and sometimes upwards from the pipe
springline. Only minor cracking in the soil adjacent to
the pipe was observed in the slowest test at a displacement rate of 0.2 mm/day where the soil behavior was
more ductile, rather than brittle.
Relaxation of load occurs when the applied displacement rate is set equal to zero. This implies that a significant component of the load is creep-related, or dependent on the rate of displacement.
Surface warming is extremely effective in reducing
the uplift resistance experienced by the buried pipe.
A series of tensile tests allowed correlation of the
observed uplift resistance tests with the soil tensile
strength.
There appears to be a direct relationship between
peak uplift resistance and depth of soil cover.
Larger pipe diameters result in larger overall uplift
resistance per unit length of pipe. However, when
expressed as a load per unit plan area, the larger pipe
results in lower unit pipe uplift stresses.
A surface freezing and thawing cycle prior to the test,
results in a significant reduction in peak uplift resistance. Re-healing of the cracked soil in the region
around and over the pipe is not completely effective in
re-establishing the original peak uplift resistance.
Post-peak loads fall to between 40 and 70% of the
peak load when the pipe displacement reaches three
times the displacement at peak load.

The 7th International Permafrost Conference

An empirical correlation between peak pipe load and

burial depth ratio, soil temperature and pipe displacement rate can be used by designers to establish the load
displacement curve for design.

plastic clay soils provide a less pronounced and lower

peak uplift resistance.

Peak uplift resistance is strongly related to the timedependent tensile strength of the soil, however finite
element stress analysis is needed to reconcile the
observed uplift resistance with the more fundamental
strength and deformation properties of the frozen soil.

The support of Stephen Lord, Ibrahim Konuk and

Gordon Daw of the National Energy Board in Calgary
is acknowledged. Mr. Ron Coutts helped to run Tests 6
and 7. Mr. Gary Wostradowski and Mr. Larry Ritco of
HBT-Agra in Calgary ran the later tests 8-13.

Acknowledgments

Reasonable agreement with the Caen, France uplift

test suggests that uplift resistance may be similar for a
relatively wide range of silt soil types. However, more

References
Esso Resources Canada Limited (ERCL) (1991). Report on
pipe uplift resistance testing in frozen fine-grained soil.
Internal Report by J.F. Nixon, November 1991.

Nixon, J. and Hazen, B. (1993). Uplift resistance of pipes in

frozen soil. In Proceedings, Sixth International Permafrost
Conference, Beijing, China. pp. 494-499.

Foriero, A. and Ladanyi, B. (1994). Pipe uplift resistance in

frozen soil and comparison with measurements.
Proceedings ASCE Journal of Cold Regions Engineering, 8, 93111.

Zhu, Y. and Carbee, D. (1987). Tensile strength of frozen silt.

U.S. Army CRREL Report 87-15, Hanover, N.H.

Nixon, J. (1991). Discrete ice lens theory for frost heave in

soils. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 28, 843-859.
Nixon, J. (1994). Role of heave pressure dependency and soil
creep in stress analysis for pipeline frost heave. In
Proceedings 7th International Cold Regions Specialty
Conference, Edmonton, March 7-9. pp. 397-412.

J.F. (Derick) Nixon

831