In the sewer pipes, reinforced concrete pipes and concrete pipes are mostly used. However, it is difficult to ensure the long-term durability of the pipe due to the corrosion of the rebar which is used for the reinforcement of the concrete. Also, reinforced concrete pipes are difficult to secure watertightness due to deterioration and corrosion by hydrogen sulfide. In order to solve such problems, research on using sewer pipes made of plastic materials is being actively conducted. When soil pressure and live load act on the buried flexible pipe, the load acting on the pipe is transferred to the surrounding soil. So, the flexible pipe will support the load with the surrounding soil together. It is difficult to predict these behaviors theoretically and clearly. Therefore, the design equation for the buried flexible pipe is analyzed by adopting theoretically idealized assumptions and it is estimated through experimental studies that it is similar to the actual structural behavior. In this paper, the mechanical properties of the soil and the polyethylene pipe were considered in application of the method proposed in ASTM D 2412 to design the buried polyethylene pipe. Also, structural behavior of the pipe resisting external loads such as soil pressure was investigated to use a polyethylene pipe as the buried pipe and the long-term behavior of the polyethylene pipe was predicted by the compaction rate of surrounding backfill soil through the field test.

The pultruded fiber reinforced polymer plastic (PFRP) is one of the most actively studied composite materials for the structural member in construction industries. In domestic design process, the PFRP member is designed as an isotropic material having only longitudinal material properties for simplicity, because it is too complex to consider orthotrophy of PFRP perfectly. In this study, three cases of buckling analysis of PFRP plate is conducted theoretically and numerically. First, the PFRP plate is considered as an orthotropic material. Second, the PFRP plate is considered as an isotropic plate having only longitudinal material properties. Third, the PFRP plate is considered as an isotropic plate having geometric mean of longitudinal and transverse material properties. As a result of buckling analysis, a buckling strength of PFRP plate as an isotropic plate having only longitudinal material properties is about 2.21 times larger than that of PFRP plate analyzed as an orthotropic plate. On the other hand, a buckling strength of PFRP plate as an isotropic plate having geometric mean material properties is about 1.19 times larger than that of PFRP plate analyzed as an orthotropic plate. In conclusion, the safety factor of 3 used in domestic design process of PFRP member is no longer applicable due to overestimation of buckling strength of PFRP member which leads to nonconservative design.

In this paper, we present the result of analytical investigation pertaining to the structural behavior of steel-concrete composite plate girder with arch-type web stiffener. In the arch-type web stiffener located in the compression side of web, infill concrete is cast to strengthen the arch-type stiffener and also to exert resisting force against compression force. This type of composite steel-concrete plate girder bridge is built and is in service. To understand the behavior thoroughly, analytical parametric study was conducted by using the finite element method. As a result it was found that the effect of arch-type stiffener with infill concrete is considerable for the design of such type composite girder bridge.

In this paper, we present the result of investigations pertaining to the elastic buckling of simply supported columns with various cross-sectional dimensions but the same length and volume. In the investigations the accuracy of the analysis methods is studied and it was found that the result obtained by the successive approximations technique is the most accurate. In addition, the elastic buckling loads of columns with variable cross-section dimensions are obtained by the theoretical and numerical methods. From the results, it was found that the buckling loads obtained by the numerical methods are close to the buckling loads obtained by the successive approximations technique for the practical standpoints. Moreover, the buckling load of column with convexity in its middle is the highest while the buckling load of the tapered column is the lowest as expected.