Numerical Analysis of Low-Fill Box Culvert under Rigid Pavement Subjected to Static Traffic Loading
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 16, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper presents a numerical study on culverts under rigid pavements subjected to static traffic loading. The numerical study was based on the results of a comprehensive field study of a single-cell low-fill box culvert under three roadway sections (concrete pavement, concrete shoulder, and unsurfaced fill). The culvert in the field test was instrumented with displacement transducers and pressure cells to capture the deformations and pressures resulting from different combinations of wheel loads from a test truck pulling a low-boy trailer loaded with a backhoe. Deflections under the culvert roof and pressures on the culvert were measured during loading. Properties of soil and pavement layers were determined in the laboratory. A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model of the culvert was developed using a finite-difference program. The numerical model with material properties was verified with the field test results. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of cement concrete pavement thickness, fill depth, and culvert span on the load distributions over the culvert under wheel loads. The intensity of the vertical pressure gradually decreased with an increase in the pavement thickness, fill depth, and culvert span. However, the effect of the span on vertical pressures decreased with a top slab designed to control excessive deflections. The comparison of the calculated vertical pressures by the numerical method and the AASHTO distribution methods demonstrated that the current AASHTO pressure distribution methods are overly conservative for the wheel load distribution on a low-fill box culvert under a rigid pavement.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was sponsored by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), which also provided the test truck and field help to obtain the samples through core drilling. The former visiting scholar, Dr. Jinshang Jiang; the former visiting student, Zhen Zhang; the former Ph.D. students, Jitendra Thakur and Deep Kumar Khatri; and the former undergraduate student, Jun Guo, at the Kansas University Geotechnical Society helped the field instrumentation. The authors gratefully acknowledge their support.
References
AASHTO. (1992). Standard specifications for highway bridges, Washington, DC.
AASHTO. (1993). Guide for design of pavement structures, Washington, DC.
AASHTO. (2007). AASHTO LRFD bridge design specifications, Washington, DC.
AASHTO. (2011). The manual for bridge evaluation, Washington, DC.
Abdel-Karim, A. M., Tadros, M. K., and Benak, A. J. (1993). “Structural response of full-scale concrete box culvert.” J. Struct. Eng., 3238–3254.
Abdel-Karim, A. M., Tadros, M. K., and Benak, J. V. (1990). “Live load distribution on concrete box culverts.” Transportation Research Record, 1288, 136–151.
Acharya, R. (2012). “Improved load distribution for load rating of low-fill box structures.” M.S. thesis, Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
Acharya, R., Han, J., Brennan, J., Parsons, R. L., and Khatri, D. K. (2014). “Structural response of a low-fill box culvert under static and traffic loading.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 04014184.
ACI (American Concrete Institute). (2011). Building code requirements for structural concrete, ACI 318, Farmington Hills, MI.
ASTM. (2011). “Standard test method for compressive strength of cylindrical concrete specimens.” C39/C39 M-11, West Conshohocken, PA.
Bennett, R. M., Wood, S. M., Drumm E. C., and Rainwater, N. R. (2005). “Vertical loads on concrete box culverts under high embankments.” J. Bridge Eng., 643–649.
Bryden, P., Naggar, H. E. and Valsangkar, A. (2014). “Soil-structure interaction of very flexible pipes: centrifuge and numerical investigations.” Int. J. Geomech., 04014091.
Dasgupta, A., and Sengupta, B. (1991). “Large-scale model test on square box culvert backfilled with sand.” J. Geotech. Eng., 156–161.
Dezfooli, M. S., Abolmaali, A., and Razavi, M. (2014). “Coupled nonlinear finite-element analysis of soil-steel pipe structure interaction.” Int. J. Geomech., 04014032.
FLAC3D [Compuer software]. Itasca Consulting Group, Inc., Minneapolis.
James, R. W., and Brown, D. E. (1987). “Wheel load induced earth pressures on box culverts.” Transportation Research Record, 1129, 55–62.
Kang, J., Parker, F., Kang, Y., and Yoo, C. H. (2008). “Effects of frictional forces acting on sidewalls of buried box culverts.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 32(3), 289–306.
Kellogg, C. G. (1993). “Vertical earth loads on buried engineered works.” J. Geotech. Eng., 487–506.
Kim, K., and Yoo, C. H. (2002). “Design loading for buried box culverts.” Rep. No. IR-02-03, Highway Research Center, Auburn Univ., Auburn, AL, 82.
Kim, K., and Yoo, C. H. (2005). “Design loading on deeply buried box culverts.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 20–27.
Lawson, W. D., Wood, T. A., Newhouse, C. D., and Jayawcikrama, P. W. (2010). “Evaluating existing culverts for load capacity allowing for soil-structure interaction.” Rep. No. 0-5849-1, Texas Dept. of Transportation, Austin, TX, 303.
Marston, A. (1930). “The theory of external loads on closed conduits in the light of the latest experiments.” Bulletin 96, Iowa Engineering Experiment Station, Ames, IA.
Marston, A., and Anderson, A. O. (1913). “The theory of loads on pipes in ditches and tests of cement and clay drain tile and sewer pipes.” Bulletin 31, Iowa Engineering Experiment Station, Ames, IA.
Pimentel, M., Costa, P., Félix, C., and Figueiras, J. (2009). “Behavior of reinforced concrete box culverts under high embankments.” J. Struct. Eng., 366–375.
Sawamura, Y., Kishida, K., and Kimura, M. (2014). “Centrifuge model test and FEM analysis of dynamic interactive behavior between embankments and installed culverts in multiarch culvert embankments.” Int. J. Geomech., 04014050.
Sidney, M., Young, J. F., and Darwin, D. (2003). Concrete, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 644.
Spangler, M. G. (1941). “The structural design of flexible pipe culverts.” Bulletin 153, Iowa Engineering Experiment Station, Ames, IA.
Spangler, M. G. (1950). “Field measurements of the settlement ratios of various highway culverts.” Bulletin 170, Iowa Engineering Experiment Station, Ames, IA.
Sun, L., Hopkins, T. C., and Beckham, T. L. (2011). “Long-term monitoring of culvert load reduction using an imperfect ditch backfilled with geofoam.” Transportation Research Record, 2212, 56–64.
Vaslestad, J., Johansen, T. H., and Holm, W. (1993). “Load reduction on rigid culverts beneath high fills: long-term behavior.” Transportation Research Record, 1415, 58–68.
Wijewickreme, D., and Weerasekara, L. (2014). “Analytical modeling of field axial pullout tests performed on buried extensible pipes.” Int. J. Geomech., 04014044.
You, Z., Xia, Y., Hu, C., and Wang, B. (2001). “Finite element analysis of concrete pavements over culverts.” Int. J. Geomech., 337–350.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 2, 2015
Accepted: Jan 7, 2016
Published online: Feb 11, 2016
Discussion open until: Jul 11, 2016
Published in print: Oct 1, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.