Structural Performance of In-Service Corrugated Steel Culvert under Vehicle Loading

Abstract

Dynamic distributed fiber optic strain sensors were used, for the first time, to monitor the behavior of an in-service corrugated steel culvert with a span of 2.75 m and a skew angle of 45° under static and dynamic vehicle loading. These sensors enabled thrust and moment distributions to be measured around the circumference of the culvert. The peak thrusts were not found at the springlines as assumed by North American design codes. Additionally, the flexural stresses were of a similar magnitude to the hoop stresses, contrary to the assumption of ring compression used in many design codes. Dynamic truck loading resulted in higher thrusts and lower moments than did static loading. For this culvert, the deteriorated asphalt pavement had little influence on thrusts but did reduce the magnitude of the moments. Maximum thrust envelopes were developed using the distributed data, and demonstrated that positions near the crown experienced thrusts higher than those at the springlines. The peak measured strain was 9.3% of the yield strain, suggesting that the culvert had adequate live load capacity.