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Flexible culverts in sloping terrain: Research advances and application
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Civil and Architectural Engineering, Structural Engineering and Bridges.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3030-9231
2015 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Although the construction of flexible culverts involves simplicity in comparison to similar concrete structures, the complexity of the beneficial interaction between soil and steel materials requires good understanding for their composite action and performance. Current design methods have certain validity limitations with regard to applicable slopes above the structures. Given the short construction time of flexible culverts, there is an urge to explore the feasibility and the constructability of such as cost-effective structures in sloping terrain, where they may function as an avalanche protection structure for a given road, a culvert under a ski slope, or even as a protection canopy for tunnel entrances.

This report compiles the efforts carried out toward gaining knowledge about the different factors that may affect the behaviour of flexible culverts in sloping environment. The report includes an extended summary of the investigation, which is mainly presented in two appended papers. The study involved numerical simulation of three case studies to investigate their performances with regard to soil loading and avalanche loads as well. The height of cover, surface slope intensity, slope stability, soil support conditions, and avalanche proximity, were studied and discussed.

The study results allowed realizing the susceptibility of flexible culverts to low heights of soil cover when built in sloping terrain, which is reflected in the deformation response and the incremental change in sectional forces, especially the bending moments. It is also found that increasing the depth of soil cover may feasibly improve the structural performance under asymmetrical soil loading and avalanche loads, where it subsequently help in reducing the bending moments in the wall conduit. The presence of a flexible culvert may affect adversely the soil stability in sloping terrain and thus need to be addressed in design. Furthermore, the flexural response of a flexible culvert is directly influenced by the soil support configuration at the downhill side of the structure. In addition, the report also attempts to highlight some general guidelines about the design aspects of flexible culverts in sloping terrain, and seeks to reflect some of the findings on the design methodology for flexible culverts used in Sweden.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2015. , p. viii, 47
Series
TRITA-BKN. Bulletin, ISSN 1103-4270 ; 135
Keywords [en]
Flexible culvert, Soil‒steel composite bridge, Sloping terrain, Swedish design method, Finite element model, Slope stability, Avalanche load, Snowshed
National Category
Infrastructure Engineering
Research subject
Civil and Architectural Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-177903OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-177903DiVA, id: diva2:874917
Presentation
2015-12-03, M108, Brinellvägen 23, KTH, Stockholm, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

QC 20151130

Available from: 2015-11-30 Created: 2015-11-30 Last updated: 2022-06-23Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Flexible culverts in sloping terrain: Numerical simulation of soil loading effects
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Flexible culverts in sloping terrain: Numerical simulation of soil loading effects
2015 (English)In: Engineering structures, ISSN 0141-0296, E-ISSN 1873-7323, Vol. 101, p. 111-124Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper investigates the performance of flexible culverts – often referred to as soil–steel composite bridges (SSCB) – when constructed in sloping topography. A number of 2D finite element models were created to simulate three case studies compromising two pipe arches and one high profile arch. The models were generated to investigate the effect of different surface slopes for different depths of soil cover. The aim was to understand and perceive the change of sectional forces in the structure with respect to slope increase under different soil covers. In addition, the effect of structure presence in the soil was also investigated in terms of soil stability. The results enable to realize the susceptibility of such structures to low heights of soil cover when built in sloping environment, which is seen in the incremental change in displacements and sectional forces, specially the bending moments. It is also found that the geometrical aspects of the profile shapes have more pronounced effect on their performance when introducing steeper slopes. The safety factor of soil stability is found to decrease when introducing such structures in the soil.

Keywords
Soil–steel composite bridge, Flexible culvert, Swedish design method, Sloping terrain, Slope stability, Finite element model
National Category
Civil Engineering
Research subject
Civil and Architectural Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-171212 (URN)10.1016/j.engstruct.2015.07.004 (DOI)000362142200010 ()2-s2.0-84937216450 (Scopus ID)
Note

QC 20150805

Available from: 2015-07-22 Created: 2015-07-22 Last updated: 2024-03-18Bibliographically approved
2. Flexible culverts in sloping terrain: Numerical simulation of avalanche load effects
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Flexible culverts in sloping terrain: Numerical simulation of avalanche load effects
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
National Category
Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-177916 (URN)
Note

QS 2015

Available from: 2015-11-30 Created: 2015-11-30 Last updated: 2022-06-23Bibliographically approved

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Wadi, Amer

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