Effect of Deterioration on the Performance of Corrugated Steel Culverts

Abstract

An experimental investigation was undertaken to compare the performance of a largely intact steel culvert with well-compacted backfill with a corroded culvert in loose backfill. The behavior of both structures is compared during backfilling and under imposed surface loads equivalent to the standard American and Canadian design trucks at two burial depths (0.6 and 0.9 m). During backfilling, the deteriorated culvert deflections were much larger than the intact culvert because of differences in both culvert and backfill stiffnesses. Under surface loading, the deteriorated culvert experienced higher deflections and bending moments, whereas the intact culvert experienced higher thrust forces. It was found that, under relatively shallow cover, the load from one wheel pad of the axle influenced the behavior of the culvert under the other wheel pad. The deteriorated culvert was then tested to failure with localized bending in the crown and buckling of the remaining steel in the corroded region serving as indicators of failure.