Live load effect in soil-steel flexible culvert: role of apparent cohesion of backfill

Abstract

The article deals with the numerical modelling of a soil-steel structure subjected to live loads. The study refers to measurements obtained on a real culvert located near Niemcza village, Poland. The vehicle constituting the load was crossing the bridge one way and then it was going back. During such loading cycle the values of displacement and unit strain in chosen reference points on shell were registered. The graphs of measured quantities versus load location exhibit hysteresis loops. This feature of soil-steel structures is called hysteretic live load effect. The numerical simulation of the live load test was carried out using finite volume method. It was found that the hysteretic effect can be reproduced in the numerical model providing that Mohr-Coulomb model of soil backfill and one sided frictional interface at soil-steel contact were assumed. Furthermore, it has been shown that fair agreement of simulation and measurements results in both quantitative and qualitative aspect can be reached under the condition that the soil medium is treated as partially saturated by adopting adequate value of apparent cohesion.

Keywords:

• Buried structure
• hysteresis
• vehicular loading

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.