Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. T.A. Newson

Abstract

Buried box culverts are an important part of our infrastructure. Optimisation of their analysis requires insight into the complex interaction between the culvert and the soil. This study has investigated soil-structure interaction for buried box culverts using data from centrifuge model tests, field testing and finite element modeling. The results show redistribution of the free-field stresses or ‘soil arching’ around these culverts, which have modified the degree of loading attracted to different regions of the culverts. This phenomenon has been found to be affected by depth of cover, soil stiffness and stress history, the structural performance of the culvert top, sides and bottom, the relative stiffness of the structure compared to the soil and the roughness of the sidewalls. Current code provisions ignore a number of the aforementioned features and do not account for some of the subtleties of soil-structure interaction behaviour.

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