The load deformation behavior of buried pipelines to shallow foundation loading is presented in the present study. Response of buried pipes to the strip loading with and without compressible inclusion was modeled through small-scale laboratory tests. A series of small-scale laboratory tests were conducted on buried pipes maintaining the constant embedment depth, soil type, pipe type, pipe diameter, load and rate of loading. A strong MS box was used to perform small-scale experiments, which was equipped with the front transparent glass panel to facilitate the capture of movements in the small-scale model during the increments of the loading. Non-plastic soil (‘ϕ’ soil) fine sand was used for all the models tests. A 2-inch diameter HDPE pipe was used to represent the prototype pipes. 20mm thick geofoam panel with varying density and width (horizontal direction in plane strain) was used as a compressible inclusion. The parameters considered in the present study were width of the geofoam and density of the geofoam. An image analysis technique was used to evaluate the performance of the geofoam and deformation behavior of the buried pipe. Strip loading was applied with a constant load rate of 1N/Sec using a Universal Testing Machine (UTM). This facilitates the correct evaluation of dissipation of the energy due to geofoam through soil arching and compression of the geofoam. The study should propose an effective solution to the distressing of buried pipelines. The deformation in buried pipeline was observed to reduce when geofoam was placed below strip loading. This reduction was found to be significant with increase in width of the geofoam and decrease in density of the geofoam. However, the density of the geofoam was found to have less effect on deformation reduction than that of the geofoam width.
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