• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.715-726
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• 2017

The paper presents a numerical analysis of a steel-soil composite (SSC) culvert in the scope of static (dead and live) loads. The Abaqus program based on the finite element method (FEM) was used for calculations. Maximum displacements were obtained in the shell crown, and the largest stresses in the haunches. Calculation results were compared with the experimental ones and previous calculations obtained from the Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis (ARSA) program. The shapes of calculated displacements and stresses are similar to those obtained with the experiment, but the absolute values were generally higher than measured ones. The relative differences of calculated and measured values were in the range of 5-23% for displacements, and 15-42% for stresses. Developed calculation model of the SSC culvert in the Abaqus program allows obtaining reasonable values of internal forces in the culvert. Using both calculation programs, the relative differences for displacements were in the range of 15-39%, and 17-44% for stresses in favour of the Abaqus program. Three design methods (Sundquist-Pettersson, Duncan and CHBDC) were used to calculate the axial thrusts and bending moments. Obtained values were compared with test results. Generally, the design methods have conservative assumptions, especially in the live loads distribution, safety factors and consideration the interaction between soil and steel structure.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 2020

A systematic approach to assess the safety of corrugated steel plate structures has not been established yet. Therefore, an improved safety assessment procedure was proposed in this study by considering the characteristics of corrugated steel plate structures in which the dead load of backfill soil is dominant and the live load effect is minimized. The proposed procedure can consider the combined effect of axial force and bending moment on the safety, based on the Soil-Culvert Interaction (SCI) method, and can differentiate the maintenance scheme according to the calculated plasticity index. There is also an advantage in enhancing the accuracy of assessment, utilizing the measured displacements. Furthermore, improved methods were proposed by discussing various ways for reasonably improving the proposed assessment procedure. The safety of an actual structure and a full-scale test specimen was assessed by applying the proposed procedure. The conventional assessment procedure significantly overestimated the load-carrying capacity, whereas the proposed procedure resulted in a reasonable level of safety. Therefore, the procedure proposed in this study is expected to contribute to the establishment of proper maintenance plan such as the quantitative condition assessment and strengthening of corrugated steel plate structure.