Effect of Geofoam on Vertical Stress Distribution on Buried Structures Subjected to Static and Cyclic Footing Loads
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 10, Issue 1
Abstract
Buried structures, such as pipes and culverts, are extensively used for transportation applications. The existence of these structures within the soil mass causes a redistribution of stresses. The stiffness of the buried structure relative to the surrounding soil affects the magnitude and distribution of vertical stresses. Higher stresses on a buried structure may cause excessive deformations and even failure of the buried structure. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam, a lightweight material, has been increasingly used above buried structures as a compressible inclusion to reduce vertical stresses acting on the buried structures. This experimental study investigated the effects of EPS geofoam, including geofoam stiffness and thickness, on the distribution of vertical stresses above a rectangular concrete culvert under static and cyclic footing loads. Reduced-scale models were constructed in a test box under a plane-strain condition. This study adopted the induced trench installation (ITI) method to place the concrete culvert overlaid with an EPS geofoam. The backfill material was a dry, poorly graded Kansas River sand. The footing load was applied parallell to the culvert axis. Earth pressure cells were used to monitor the vertical stress distributions above the geofoam and surrounding soil. The experimental results show that the EPS geofoam reduced the vertical stresses on the buried structure due to the mobilization of soil arching. The lower stiffness and thin geofoam had more effect on the vertical stress reduction. Cyclic loading minimized the soil arching effect induced by the compressible geofoam. This paper also examines the test results with available analytical solutions. The effects of soil arching and the induced vertical stress above the rigid structure under static footing load were considered separately. The analytical solutions were found to match well with the experimental results.
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Acknowledgments
The laboratory manager and technician, David Woody and Kent Dye of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) at the University of Kansas (KU), provided their technical support during the fabrication of the box and the laboratory testing. Visiting graduate student, Panpan Shen, and graduate student, Saif Jawad, at the KU CEAE Department provided their assistance in collecting test materials and performing laboratory tests. This research was conducted under a joint effort between KU and Tongji University, which is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51478349). All the above support is greatly appreciated.
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Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 10 • Issue 1 • February 2019
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 16, 2018
Accepted: Jul 2, 2018
Published online: Oct 23, 2018
Published in print: Feb 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Mar 23, 2019
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