Abstract Deflection is the main criteria to evaluate the performance of the pipes and corrugations are added to pipes to increase the stiffness. In the relevant standards, ring stiffness is taken into account together with deformation. In this study, the state of strain–stress of the circular cylindrical shell under the uniform loads in the direction of the vertical diameter, distributed along a certain length of the generatrixes of the shell is investigated by the analytical and experimental methods. The obtained analytical results are applied to the investigation of the state of strain of the corrugated plastic pipes which are widely used in the construction of infrastructure facilities. Comparison of the obtained analytical and experimental data reveals their satisfactory agreement. The results enable to overcome the difficulties in assessing the data received during testing stiffness of corrugated pipes which are subjected to the vertical loads.