Discussion of “numerical simulation of strength failure of buried polyethylene pipe under foundation settlement” by Luo et al. (2015)

Luo et al. (2015) investigated the amount of stress on the pipe body under the foundation settlement and tried to introduce the dangerous sections using the location of maximum stress in the pipe section. Although they well described their research background and carefully explained the results of analysis, but, once the article was read, some comments and points, including consideration of geometrical nonlinearity, the methodology used to determine the dangerous section, applying ground displacement to the pipe and assigning constraints for transient length were questioned and discussed. It is hoped that the points and questions raised in this article help the original paper to be more practical and clear.