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by Ubani Obinna Ranks on June 24, 2019 in Bridges, Culverts, Eurocodes, Reinforced Concrete
Design, Staad Pro, Statically Indeterminate Structures
Introduction
A culvert is a drainage structure designed to convey storm water or stream of limited flow across a
roadway. Culverts can consist of single or multi-span construction, with a minimum interior width of 6 m
when the measurement is made horizontally along the centreline of the roadway from face to face of side
walls. Technically, any such structure with such span over 6 m is not a culvert but can be treated as a
bridge. Box culverts consist of two horizontal slabs, and two or more vertical side walls which are built
monolithically.
For proper performance of culverts in their design life, there must be hydraulic design, which will give the
geometric dimensions or openings that will convey the design flood. It is typical for culverts to be
designed for the peak flow rate of a design storm of acceptable return period. The peak flow rate may be
obtained from a unit hydrograph at the culvert site, or developed from a stream flow and rainfall records
for a number of storm events. In the absence of hydraulic data, it is wise to make conservative assumptions
based on visual inspection of the site, performance of existing culverts and other drainage infrastructures,
or by asking locals questions.
Box culverts are usually analysed as rigid frames, with all corner connections considered as rigid and no
consideration for sidesway. The centreline of slabs, walls and floor are used for computing section
properties and for dimensional analysis. Standard fillets which are not required for moment or shear or
both shall not be considered in computing section properties.
Design loads
The structural design of a reinforced concrete box culvert comprises the detailed analysis of rigid frame for
bending moments, shear forces, and axial forces due to various types of loading conditions outlined below:
I believe that these loads are very familiar to designers, otherwise the reader should consult standard text
books. However, I am going to point out some important considerations worthy attention while assessing
design loads on culverts.
The loading of the notional lanes according to Load Model 1 (LM1) is as given in Figure 1;
Fig 1: Application of Traffic Load on Notional Lanes
Concentrated loads
According to BD 31/01, no dispersal of load is necessary if the fill is less than 600 mm thick for HA
loading. However, once the fill is thicker than 600 mm, 30 units of HB loads should be used with adequate
dispersal of the load through the fill. This same concept can be adopted for LM1 of EN 1991-2.
Earth Pressure
Depending on the site conditions, at rest pressure coefficient ko = 1 - sin (∅) is usually used for analysing
earth pressure.
Loading Example
A culvert on a roadway corridor has the parameters given below. The culvert was founded at a location
with no ground water problem. Using any suitable means, obtain the design internal forces induced in the
members of the culvert due to the anticipated loading conditions when the culvert is empty under the
following site conditions:
(1) The top slab of the culvert is in direct contact with traffic carriageway and overlaid with 75 mm thick
asphalt
(2) There is a 1.2 m thick fill on the top of the culvert before the carriageway formation level.
Materials property
Angle of internal friction of fill soil = 30°
Unit weight of water = 9.81 kN/m3
Unit weight of back fill soil = 19 kN/m3
Unit weight of concrete = 25 kN/m3
Unit weight of asphalt concrete = 22.5 kN/m3
fck = 30 Mpa
fyk = 500 Mpa
Concrete cover = 50 mm
Load Analysis
Width of carriage way = 8 m
Number of notional lanes = 8/3 = 2 notional lanes
Width of the remaining area = 8 - (2 × 3) = 2 m
For the purpose of simplicity, let us combine these two actions such that the permanent action is given by
gk = 7.5 + 1.69 = 9.19 kN/m2
Fig 5: Permanent Action on Top of the Box Culvert
When the culvert is full, the hydrostatic pressure profile inside the culvert can also be easily obtained.
However this was not considered in this analysis.
For this case, let us use Load Model 1 of EN 1991-2 which is recommended by clause 4.9.1 of EN 1991-2.
The tandem load can be considered to be dispersed through the earth fill and uniformly distributed on the
top of the box culvert. The contact surface of the tyres of LM1 is 0.4m x 0.4m, which gives a contact
pressure of about 0.9375 N/mm2 per wheel.
Fig 8: LM1 Tandem System
We are going to disperse the load through the earth fill to the box culvert by using the popular
2(vertical):1(horizontal) load increment method. This is the method recommended by BD 31/01,
otherwise, Boussinesq's method can also be used. However, clause 4.9.1 (Note 1) of EN 1991-2:2003
recommends a dispersal angle of 30° to the vertical for a well compacted earth fill. A little consideration
will show that this is not so far away from the 2:1 load increment method.
Fig 9: Single Wheel Load Distribution Through Compacted Earth Fill
Therefore, the equivalent uniformly distributed load from each wheel to the culvert is;
qec = 150/(1.6 × 1.6) = 58.593 kN/m2
It is acknowledged that the pressure from each wheel in the axles can overlap when considering the tandem
system as shown in the figure below. This is considered in the lateral and longitudinal directions.
Fig 10: Overlapping Tandem Axle Load Dispersion Through Earth Fill
As can be seen, the difference between considering the entire tandem system and one wheel alone is not
much. But to proceed in this design, we will adopt the pressure from the tandem system.
Therefore the traffic variable load on the box culvert is given in Fig 11 below;
Fig 11: Equivalent Traffic Load Distribution on Top of the Box Culvert
The maximum pressure at the base of the culvert (at 2.3 m) is given by;
pmax = koρH = 0.5 × 19 kN/m3 × 3.5 m = 33.25 kN/m2
The minimum pressure at the top of the culvert (at 1.2 m below the ground) is given by;
pmin = koρH = 0.5 × 19 kN/m3 × 1.2 m = 11.40 kN/m2
Fig 13: Horizontal Earth Pressure on Buried Box Culvert
The horizontal surcharge load distribution on the buried box culvert will be the same as that of case
A.
In this post, we are going to describe how we can model, load, and analyse box culverts using Staad Pro
software. Here is a quick a recap of the properties of the box culvert under consideration;
Materials property
fck = 30 Mpa
Concrete cover = 50 mm
After forming this, the wing walls can also be formed, which is followed by meshing (rectangular or
polygonal) to form the shell of the box culvert. The final output of the meshing operation is as shown
below;
Fig 3: Fully Meshed Box Culvert
The meshing process can be completed by adding plate thickness of 300 mm to all the elements.
If we assume that the supporting soil and the backfill are of the same material, then we can maintain the
same angle of internal friction of 30°. Angle of internal friction of 30° can suggest a loose - medium dense
sand in its undisturbed state, therefore we can take a modulus of subgrade reaction of 50,000 kN/m2/m
for a well compacted sand. For a slightly compacted sand, you can take a value of 30,000 kN/m2/m.
So we can input this option into Staad Pro using 'compression only' option (see the dialog box below in
Fig 4);
When this is applied on the structure, we have the final model as shown in Fig 5;
Fig 5: Application of Elastic Mat Foundation on the Model
What this model (Fig. 5) means is that every node of the base slab is in contact with the soil, and the soil
is represented by a spring of stiffness 50,000 kN/m2/m which is the subgrade modulus of the soil.
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(3) Loading
This is another important aspect of modelling structures because analysis results would go very wrong if
the loads are not applied properly. If you review our previous post, we considered two construction
cases;
When there is no earth fill on the culvert, the traffic load is directly on the top slab of the culvert as
tandem loads and as UDL, but when there is earth fill, traffic load is dispersed in the ratio of 2:1 as UDL
on the culvert. We are going to consider 5 load cases in our analysis in this model;
These load cases are considered independently at first, and then combined with appropriate partial
factors of safety to determine the design actions. Please note that effects of ground water and the
pressure in the shell of the culvert when it is filled with water is an important load case too but was not
considered in this post. We have determined the magnitude of these loads in our previous post, and we
are going to apply them on the box culvert for Case A and Case B.
In our previous post, we were able to analyse the loads on the culvert for Case A as follows;
(1) Self weight: To be calculated automatically by Staad + 1.69 kN/m2 (self weight of asphalt wearing
course)
NB: In some cases, the partial factor of safety for self weight of concrete elements and other
superimposed dead loads like asphalt wearing course might be different, so in that case, it is very
advisable to treat each of them as a separate load case on Staad.
(2) Vertical earth load on the culvert = 22.80 kN/m2
(3) Traffic load dispersed as UDL = 59.523 kN/m2
(4) Horizontal surcharge load = 5.0 kN/m2
(5) Horizontal earth pressure load = trapezoidal distribution with minimum earth pressure of
11.40 kN/m2 at the top of the culvert and 33.25 kN/m2 at the bottom of the culvert
Load cases 1-4 are very easy to apply on Staad by utilising uniform pressure action on plates, however while
load cases 1-3 are applied in the global Y direction (gravity loads), load cases 4-5 are applied in the global
X direction (horizontally). I will only demonstrate how load case 5 can be applied, since it will involve using
the hydrostatic load command on Staad. This is shown on Fig. 6.
(ii) Select/highlight all the plates that will receive the load
(iii) Input the minimum and maximum pressure loads based on the notation given on Staad (in this case you
can see that our maximum pressure load served as W1), and also input the sign conventions properly in
order to identify the direction of pressure.
(iii) Put the interpolation direction (in this case we interpolated the load in the Y-direction)
After all said are done, the output should be as given below;
At this point, we are going to define the load combination for ultimate limit state as succinctly as possible.
The reader is advised to consult the relevant code of practice and standard textbooks on how to group and
combine loads involving traffic actions, earth load, etc. In this case, EN 1990, EN 1991-1, EN 1991-2, and
EN 1997-1 can be consulted. Note that culverts are also analysed for other loads such as temperature
effects, collision on head walls, centrifugal actions, braking actions, etc.
The load combination principle adopted here is based on expressions (6.10a and 6.10b) of EN 1990.
From Table A2.4(B) of EN 1990:2002 + A1:2005, we are going to adopt the following partial factors:
All permanent actions including superimposed dead load and vertical earth pressure γG = 1.35
Leading/main traffic action γQ,1 = 1.35
Traffic surcharge γQ,2 = 1.5
Horizontal earth pressure and ground water γQ,2 = 1.5
We will now apply this load combination on Staad Pro as shown in Fig. 8.
(4) Analysis
On analysing the structure, we obtain the following results at ultimate limit state;
Fig 9: Transverse Bending Moment
Fig 9: Longitudinal Bending Moment
Fig 10: Base Pressure
Fig 11: Transverse Shear Stress
A little consideration will show that the top slab is subjected to an ultimate design moment MEd of 56.5
kNm/m and an axial pull of NEd of 91.5 kN/m (check for membrane stresses in your own Staad Model).
NB: Shear and membrane forces in plates are expressed in Mpa in Staad, so will you have to multiply
them with the thickness of the element to get the values in kN/m.
For the top slab of the culvert, the M-N interaction chart is given in Fig. 11 below for obtaining the design
reinforcement.
Fig 12: M-N Interaction Chart on the Box Culvert
When designed, the area of steel for the axial compression and bending is 1223 mm2/m. Therefore,
provision of H16@200 c/c (Asprov = 2010 mm2) on each face will be adequate.
The ideal thing is to apply a moving load on Staad after vehicle definition, such that the worst effect can
be obtained. Note that you cannot apply a moving load directly on plate elements on Staad Pro, but you
will need to create dummy beam members of negligible stiffness so that the axles can sit on them. In this
post, we are not going to bother ourselves with the process, but we are going to treat the wheel load as
static.
Influence line has shown that the most onerous bending moment is obtained when the front axle is 0.26
m beyond the mid-span of the culvert. Therefore, we are going to apply static wheel load at that location.
Remember that it is always recommended to apply the full tandem system of LM1 whenever applicable.
The critical location of wheel load on the box culvert for maximum moment is given in Fig 15 below;
Fig 15: Most Critical Location of Wheel Load on the Culvert
When the static traffic load is applied on Staad and viewed longitudinally on the box culvert, we can see it
as given in Fig 16 (note that the unloaded areas represent the wing walls).
Fig 16: Application of LM1 on Staad Pro
(3) Analysis
When the structure is analysed, the results at ultimate limit state are as shown below;
Fig 17: Transverse Bending Moment
Our analysis results have shown that when there is earth fill, the bending moment at ultimate limit state
on top of the culvert is about 56.5 kNm/m, but when traffic is directly on top of the culvert, the bending
moment is about 62 kNm/m. This is about 8.8% difference.