Response Evaluation of Large-Span Ultradeep Soil─Steel Bridges to Truck Loading

Abstract

Soil–steel structures are increasingly used as a solution for roadway and railway overpasses because of their relative low cost and ease of construction compared with conventional concrete and steel bridges. Recently, soil–steel arched bridges have been developed to achieve large spans of up to 32.4 m. Current design guidelines for these structures require comprehensive numerical modeling to specifically consider the soil–structure interaction and live loading. This study presents three-dimensional finite-element (FE) analysis for a field monitored full-scale corrugated steel culvert subjected to single-axle loading. The FE model predictions were within 15% of the measured responses. In addition, the behavior of a large-span arched steel culvert using the world's deepest corrugated steel profile was analyzed under the effect of axle loading at different soil cover heights. The straining actions of the steel structure decreased by 30%–35% as the height of soil cover increased from 1.0 to 1.4 m. Furthermore, the effects of the numerical modeling technique on the predicted performance and straining actions were evaluated, including geometric nonlinearity, soil behavior constitutive model, soil–steel interface condition, and construction stages for backfilling. The results demonstrated that incongruous numerical simulation may lead to differences in the results by up to 60% with the anticipated results causing significant impacts on the design and cost of soil–steel structures.