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A Simplified Method for Calculating Vertical Earth Pressure on Rigid Load Shedding Culvert Crown Underneath the Embankment

  • Research Article-Civil Engineering
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Abstract

For calculating the vertical earth pressure on the crown of a load shedding culvert (LSC) underneath the embankment fill, an analytical method is proposed in this paper. It can determine the corresponding position on the slip surface when the shear stress of the embankment fill on the slip surface just reaches the limit value. The method proposed in this paper considers the fact that the linearly elastic–perfectly plastic model is closer to the shear stress–strain model of embankment fill on the slip surface. According to the stress state of the embankment fill on the slip surface, the lateral earth pressure coefficient expression is derived from the geometric relationship of the Mohr's circle, in which the internal friction angle is considered as the independent variable. The stress states of the differential elements of embankment fill over LSC crown are analysed through equilibrium considerations. Thus, the analytical method for calculating the vertical earth pressure on the crown of LSC is obtained. The calculation examples are presented and compared with numerical results of FLAC 2D, which demonstrates that the difference between the proposed analytical and the numerical results is less than 10%. The results show that as the internal friction angle of embankment fill, the height of load shedding block (LSB) and the ratio of elastic modulus of the embankment fill to elastic modulus of the compressible material layer (Ef /Es) increase, the vertical earth pressure on the crown of the LSC decreases. The phenomenon is because the shear stress of the embankment fill on the slip surface over the LSC crown mostly reaches the limit value, such that the most of loads of the central fill mass overburdening the LSH surface are transferred to the adjacent fill masses.

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The corresponding author confirms that all of the content, figures (drawings, charts, photographs, etc.), and tables in the submitted work are either original work created by the authors listed on the manuscript or work for which permission to reuse has been obtained from the creator. The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request, and the readers can access the data supporting the conclusions of the study.

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Acknowledgements

The work in this paper was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC] [No. 51678223, 52078194], Hubei Provincial Education Department Key Project [No. D20171402], and Green Industrial Project of Hubei University of Technology [YXQN2017001]. The authors would like to express their appreciation to this financial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Road and Bridge Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, 430068, China

    Qiang Ma, Huafei Fu, Henglin Xiao & Chuheng Zhong

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  1. Qiang Ma
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  2. Huafei Fu
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  3. Henglin Xiao
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Contributions

Qiang Ma contributed to conceptualization and writing—review, supervision. Huafei Fu contributed to methodology and writing—original draft. Henglin Xiao was involved in data curation and validation. Chuheng Zhong was involved in writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Qiang Ma.

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Ma, Q., Fu, H., Xiao, H. et al. A Simplified Method for Calculating Vertical Earth Pressure on Rigid Load Shedding Culvert Crown Underneath the Embankment. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 11101–11112 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-05680-x

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