Behaviour of corrugated plate culvert under backfilling loads

This paper is presents the results and conclusions of the field tests conducted on a backfilled shell structure made of Super Cor SC-56B corrugated steel plates in a road bridge located in Gimån, Sweden. The paper also presents the application of the FLAC (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) program, based on the finite differences method (FDM), for determining the behaviour of soil-steel bridge structures during backfilling. The assumptions of a computational 2D model of the shell structure with a non-linear “interface” layer are described. The method based on this computational model may be used with considerable success in the design calculations for this specific type of structures. The conclusions drawn from the tests can be helpful when assessing the behaviour of this type of the soil-steel bridge structure under the load of backfilling. Considering the increased application of this type of structure for small and medium-sized road and rail bridges, the conclusions drawn from the analysis conducted can be generalized to cover a whole class of such structural solutions.