Inertial properties of buried pipelines have a negligible effect on their response to ground motion, allowing the seismic response of buried pipelines to be calculated by methods of static analysis. The object of this study is the static, stiffness analysis of flexibly-jointed space frames embedded in a linearly elastic medium. Using the exact solutions to the beam-on-an-elastic-foundation problem a matrix, stiffness equation is derived for a jointed, straight, embedded member under uniform, distributed loads. Eight functions for the elements of the stiffness matrix and six functions for the fixed-end-force vector are derived. These 14 functions completely determine the member response. The stiffness equation is used in a stiffness-based computer program for the analysis of flexibly-jointed, embedded space frames under uniform member loads and concentrated nodal loads. Example problems demonstrating this program are presented. © 1990.
