Long-term behavior of load reduction culvrert under high fills

In order to release the structure disease of high fill culvert, load reduction measures have been gradually applied to reduce the vertical earth pressure on high fill culvert in the construction of expressways and railways. The load reduction measures for high fill culvert have been investigated by a number of researchers recently. However, the study of the long-term beahavior of high fill culvert under the load reduction condition is less common. Therefore, the theoretical model of long-term behavior for high fill culvert under the load reduction condition was eatablished based on the load shedding mechanism and creep models of the load-reducing material and fill. The time dependent effect of high fill culvert have been analysed and the formula for calculating the vertical earth pressure acting on the culvert have been deduced. Moreover, the time dependent effect of soil-culvert deformation and stress have been discussed on three conditions (i. e., (a) without considering the creep characteristics of load-reducing material and fill; (b) only considering the creep characteristic of load-reducing material; (c) considering the creep characteristics of load-reducing material and fill) by numerical simulation. To verify the theoretical model, the theoretical results was compared with the numerical results and which were consistent with the numerical results. ©, 2015, Shuili Xuebao/Journal of Hydraulic Engineering. All right reserved.