Structural Behavior of Concrete Arch Culvert

Field studies were made of an arch culvert embedded in a deep embankment and surmounted by layers of straw. Quasitheoretical internal stresses resulting from measured soil pressures acting at the extrados were correlated with measured strains. Internal stresses which might result from various hypothetical hydrostatic loadings were computed and compared with those due to actual loadings, and the individual influences of measured soil pressures and observed differential footing movements were evaluated. Behavior of the soil mass with respect to the rigid arch culvert is shown to be hydrostatic in nature to the extent that soil pressures acting on the barrel were linear functions of embankment height. Negligible changes in soil pressures were observed following completion of embankment construction. Three causes of observed distress in the prototype are indicated.