## 4 Conclusions  
This study investigated the soil pressure distributions around buried concrete pipes and the crack propagation in pipe walls under various environmental conditions using the finite element method. To this end, intensive numerical simulations were conducted under various environmental conditions in terms of loading type (longitudinal, transverse, or uniform) and the presence of groundwater and voids. This study can provide a better understanding of the load transfer mechanisms to buried concrete pipes and the resulting soil pressure distributions around pipes, as well as the crack propagation in pipe walls. These results can be used as a basis for environment-aware concrete pipe design processes. The conclusions can be drawn in two ways i.e., soil pressure distribution around the pipe and crack propagation through the pipe wall.  
For the soil pressure distributions depending on the loading types, the smallest and largest soil pressures occurred under transverse and uniform loads, respectively. The high soil pressures were caused by the high confining pressures under uniform loading. It was also observed that the soil pressures under longitudinal loading were nearly zero based on the mobilization of shear resistance along the vertical interface between the trench wall and native soil.  
For the presence of a groundwater table, the effective soil pressure for submerged conditions was the lowest among the three soil conditions (moist, saturated, and submerged). In the totally submerged condition, the pressure was slightly lower than that in the saturated condition at the crown but was higher at both the springline and invert, implying that the presence of a groundwater table increases the soil pressure at both of these locations.  
The presence of a void at the invert only reduces soil pressure at the invert, and there is no distinct influence at either the crown or springline. However, the reduced soil pressure around the invert area is transferred to the haunch area, resulting in greater soil pressure around the haunch area. Similarly, reduced soil pressures are transferred to the adjacent soils on both sides of a void when a void is located at the haunch. This results in an increase in soil pressure at the invert.  
For the crack propagation through the pipe wall, the first crack initiated at the crown, followed by the springline, and then the invert for all conditions. However, the cracks at the invert were not observed when there was a void at the invert. This may be because a void at the invert reduces the normal soil pressure and acts as a cushion. Additionally, the induced hoop stress did not reach the crushing stress during compression for any of the conditions analyzed in this study.  
Lastly, the cracks that initiate at both the crown and springline propagate the deepest through the pipe wall thickness under the submerged condition. The cracks that initiate at the invert propagate the deepest under other conditions with voids at the haunch.  
[PERSON] and [PERSON] prepared conceptualization and methodology. [PERSON] supervised the overall study and designed the scheme for estimation and performed numerical analyses with software. [PERSON]-[PERSON] and [PERSON] prepared original draft manuscript and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** Data is all in the paper.  
**Acknowledgments:** This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. C2001661-01-01).  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.