International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume-44 Number-3 -February 2017

A review paper on analysis and cost-

comparison of box culvert for different aspect
ratio of cell
*1 #2 #3
Ajay R Polra , Prof. S. P. Chandresha , Dr. K. B. Parikh
*
P. G. Student, Government Engineering College, Dahod, Gujarat, India
#
Assistant Professor, Applied Mechanics Department, Government Engineering College, Dahod, Gujarat, India

Abstract — A Reinforced concrete box culvert Box culvert generally provided at right angle to
consists of bottom slab, top slab and two vertical the stream or drainage, but sometimes road
side walls built monolithically and form a closed alignment may cross the stream or drainage at an
rectangular or square single cell. Multiple cell box angle other than right angle, in such situation a skew
culverts are obtained by inserting one or more culvert may be provided. For a shorter span, there
intermediate vertical walls. If the discharge in a would be no difference in the design of culvert but it
stream is large, multiple cell reinforced box culverts may require an edge beam and the layout of wing
are ideal bridge structure. If the bearing capacity of walls will have to be planned as per skew angle.
the soil is low, the single box culvert becomes
uneconomical because it requires higher thickness of In box culvert, the top slab is subjected to dead
the slabs and walls. In such cases, more than one loads, live loads from moving traffic. Side walls are
box can be constructed side by side monolithically. subjected to lateral earth pressure and water pressure.
This paper deals with the study of design parameters And the bottom slab is subjected to self-weight of
of box culverts like effect of co-efficient of earth box.
pressure, angle of dispersion of live load and depth
of cushion provided on top slab of box culverts. The coefficient of earth pressure for lateral
Coefficient of earth pressure for lateral pressure on pressure on walls, depth of cushion, effective width
walls, depth of cushion, width or angle of dispersion (run of culvert) for live loads and applicability of
for live loads on box without cushion and with braking force on box without cushion (or little
cushion for structural deformation are important cushion) for structural deformation are important
items for designing the box culvert. items where opinion of the designers varies and need
to be dealt in much detail. The effect of these
Keywords — Box culvert, Single cell, multiple cells, parameters on the design of box culvert are
Aspect ratio, co-efficient of earth pressure, lateral significantly and therefore, required to be calculated
earth pressure, cushion, angle of dispersion. and assessed correctly for safe designing. Some of
the designer are consider the box as a rigid frame
I. INTRODUCTION and take the length of box is one meter for design.
Culverts are cross drainage works with clear And they consider the effect of all forces acting on
span less than six meters. In any highway or railway this unit length. While calculating weight of cushion
project, the majority of cross drainage works fall on top slab, some designer take average height of
under this category. Hence these structures earth fill coming over full length of box including
collectively are important in any project, though the sloping side fill. This is not correct and full height of
cost of the structures are small. cushion should be taken at the worst section of the
box (central portion) will be subjected to this load
The box culvert is the structure in which top and and the section needs to be designed accordingly.
bottom slabs monolithically connected to the vertical
walls. In slab culvert type the top slab is supported Among the types of culvert, box type culvert has
over the vertical walls (abutments/piers) but there is many advantages compared to slab culvert or arch
no monolithic connection between them. A box culvert. The box is structurally strong, safe, stable
culvert can be constructed with single cell or multi and easy to construct. The main advantage is, it can
cell. In the case of no cushion, the top slab is placed be placed at any elevation within the embankment
almost at road level. In the case of box culvert with with varying cushion which is not possible for other
cushion, box can be placed within the embankment type of culverts. A multi cell box can cater for large
such that top slab is few meters below the road discharge and can be accommodated within smaller
surface. The height of cushion is governed by the height of embankment. It does not require separate
road profile at the location of the culvert. elaborate foundation and can be placed on soft soil

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 112

 International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume-44 Number-3 -February 2017

by providing suitable base slab projection to reduce b) Box inside full with water, top slab is
base pressure within the safe bearing capacity of subjected to live load and side wall is
foundation soil. Bearings are not needed. It is subjected to lateral earth pressure.
convenient to extend the existing culvert in the event c) Box inside full with water, top slab is
of widening of the carriageway at a later date as per subjected to live load and there is no lateral
future requirement, without any problem of design earth pressure on side wall.
and/or construction.
III. LITERATURE REVIEW
II. DESIGN CONSIDERATION
A. Co-efficient of earth pressure Vinod and Chava [17] had found out stresses such
as bending moment and shear force of the structure
The earth can exert pressure on the side wall,
under railway loading and those stresses were
minimum as active and maximum as passive, or in
computed by computational methods and also
between called pressure at rest. The value of co-
compared with conventional method. Design
efficient of earth pressure is depends on the site
parameters are also computed based on Indian
condition. If the structure is constructed before the
Railway Standards. They studied study about design
backfilling of earth, take the co-efficient of earth
of box culvert and comparative study of
pressure at rest. In such situation, the value of
reinforcement details. They had done analysis on
coefficient of earth pressure shall be more than
box culvert using STAAD Pro and SAP200 and find
active condition. The co-efficient of earth pressure in
out B.M, S.F. and stresses. Size of the box culvert
case of box is taken to be 0.333 for a soil having
was 3mx3m. Area of reinforcement for top and
φ=30°or may take value 0.5 for normal soil having
bottom slab was also calculated.
φ=30°. It is suggested that these co-efficient even
when taken differently have little effect on the
Pavan D. Tikate and S.N. Tande [12] had studied
overall design of the section.
the effect of the variation of cushion depth,
B. Cushion coefficient of earth pressure, width or angle of
dispersion on the structural behaviour of the three-
In the case of no cushion, the top slab is placed dimensional box culvert and to examine the
almost at road level. In the case of box culvert with accuracy of FEM by comparing the FEM results
cushion, box can be placed within the embankment with IS Code methods. The calculated bending
such that top slab is few meters below the road moments, shear forces from the FEM were
surface. The height of cushion is governed by the compared with those from the current theoretical
road profile at the location of the culvert. While methods. They concluded that for safer design the
calculating weight of cushion on top slab, some co-efficient of earth pressure can be taken 0.5 which
designers take average height of earth fill coming gives higher results than 0.33.
over full length of box including sloping side fill.
C. Width or angle of dispersion Abhijeet and Vidya [8] had done analyse of box
culvert using STAAD Pro software and find out B.M.
The maximum live load bending moment is and S.F. at support and mid span. They had
calculated by considering the effective width of the presented analysis of a Reinforced concrete box
slab. This effective width is also called the effective culvert using finite element method. Three-
width of dispersion and is measured parallel to the dimensional configuration of the space has been
supporting edges of slab. Dispersion of the wheel considered and computer code has been developed
load along the span is known as the effective length for finding the bending moments, member forces
of dispersion. It is also called the dispersion length. and support reactions due to equivalent traffic load,
To consider the effective width the load is dispersed lateral soil pressures.
over an angle with respect to the vertical. If the
angle with respect to vertical line or 0 dispersion M.G. Kalyanshetti and S.A. Gosavi [9] prepared
increases, the effective width of dispersion of live model of single, double, triple cell box culvert in
load also increases thus reducing the intensity of live STAAD Pro and developed C language program
load. which gives quantity of steel and total cost of culvert.
IRC class AA tracked live load was considered. The
D. Load cases for design analysis was done by using stiffness matrix method
There are three load cases which govern the design. and a computer program in C language was
These are given below developed for the cost evaluation. Study has carried
out related to variation in bending moment;
a) Empty box, top slab is subjected to live subsequently cost comparison was made for
load and side wall is subjected to lateral different aspect ratios. 12m channel length was fixed
earth pressure. and 2 to 6m height variation was taken in size of box
culvert. They concluded that for different cells and

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 113

 International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume-44 Number-3 -February 2017

different heights the optimized thickness of box wheel load of a HS20 truck. The load-deflection
culverts was to be obtained by the different formulas plots obtained from the FEM analyses were
which will a cost-effective design of the box. compared with the experimental test results, which
showed close correlation.
Feirusha S. H. [5] had studied Finite element
analysis for find out the value and location of Ping Zhu et al. [13] had found an optimal design
maximum and minimum principal stresses and with the best combinations of sidewalls, floor, and
compare the value and location of principal stresses roof thickness of the box-culvert structure. Finite
between three loading condition of analysed box element method was used for analysis of the stress
culvert. COMSOL software was used for analysis. and deformation of the box-culvert structure. As a
Dimension of box culvert = 3.6m x 3.6m. result, an optimal design was obtained, which not
only reduces the use of concrete, but also reduces the
Neha et al. [10] considered the parameter like demands on the bearing capacity of the foundation
angle of dispersion, depth of cushion, co-efficient of soil.
earth pressure for analysis of box culvert. Size of
culvert was taken as 3m x 3m with and without A.D. Patil et al. [1] had discussed the behaviour of
cushion of 5m. they concluded that Small variation box culvert with cushion and without cushion load
in co-efficient of earth pressure has little influence for different aspect ratios and also studied the effect
on the design of box particularly without cushion. of different load combinations which will produces
For box without cushion braking force is required to worst effect for safe structural design. They
be considered particularly for smaller span culverts. concluded that the load combination with empty box
was found to be the critical combination for all
Osama Abuhajar et al. [11] carried out study on values of aspect ratios under consideration. They
soil culvert interaction(SCI). Small scale centrifuge used SAP2000 for analysis of box culvert.
physical model tests were conducted to investigate
SCI considering the height and density of soil above Ali Abolmaali et al. [2] experimented on six full-
the culvert and the geometry of the culvert. The scale 2.4 m span box culverts. Box culvert were
results of those centrifuge tests were used to tested to failure by subjecting each culvert to the
calibrate and verify a numerical model that was used AASHTO HS-20 wheel load. The location of the
to further investigate the response of box culverts to wheel load was varied in order to identify the critical
static Loads. shear location. Size of the box culvert was 2.4m x
1.2m x 1.2m.
Sujata and R. Shreedhar [16] had carried out the
work to evaluate the design coefficients for shear Raju Acharya et al. [14] had measured Deflections
force, bending moment and normal thrust for single under the culvert roof and pressures on the culvert
cell, two celled and three celled box culvert subject measured at field during loading. A three-
to various loading cases. The study showed that the dimensional (3D) numerical model of the culvert
maximum positive moment develops at the centre of was developed using a finite-difference program.
top and bottom slab for the condition that the sides The numerical model with material properties was
of the culvert not carrying the live load and the verified with the field test results. They used
culvert is running full of water and the maximum FLAC3D software for analysis. Size of box culvert
negative moments develop at the support sections of was 3m (H) x 6.75m (L) and span (varies).
the bottom slab for the condition that the culvert is
empty and the top slab carries the dead load and live Sarah L. Orton et al. [15] had determined the
load. effects of live load (truck loads) on RC box culverts
under soil fills of different thicknesses. The study
Anil K. Garg and Ali [3] presented the considered the field testing of 10 existing reinforced
development of an analytical program to investigate concrete box culverts with fill depths ranging from
the shear capacity of precast reinforced concrete box 0.76 m (2.5 ft) to 4.1 m (13.5 ft).
culverts. They were prepared three-dimensional
finite-element models (FEMs) and analysed using IV. CONCLUSIONS
ABAQUS software. Three-dimensional shell and From the above literature following conclusion
solid elements were used to model the culvert are made:
systems. The load was placed at a distance d from
the tip of the haunch of the box culvert, where d is  Depth of cushion, co-efficient of earth pressure,
the effective depth of tension reinforcement at mid width or angle of dispersion for live loads on box
span, in the top slab of the box culvert. To simulate culvert without cushion and with cushion are the
the wheel, load a 25.4 cm x 51 cm plate is used important items for designing the box culvert.
experimentally as well as in finite-element
modelling, which is used by AASHTO to model the

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 114

 International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume-44 Number-3 -February 2017

 Greater stresses are found in box culvert [15] Sarah l. Orton, j. Erik loehr, andre boeckmann and garrett
havens, ―Live-load effect in reinforced concrete box
structures without cushion, compare to box culverts under soil fill‖, Journal of bridge engineering,
culvert with cushion. Asce
 If the angle of dispersion is 0°, the intensity of [16] Sujata shreedhar and r. shreedhar, ―Design coefficients for
live load is maximum. single and two cell box culvert‖, International journal of
civil and structural engineering, volume 3, no 3, 2013
 For the safe design, the co-efficient of earth [17] Y. Vinod kumar and Dr. Chava srinivas, ―Analysis and
pressure can be taken 0.5 which gives higher design of box culvert by using computational methods‖,
results than 0.33. International journal of engineering & science research,
vol-5(7) PP 850-86, July 2015
 Box culvert does not need any elaborate
foundation, and can easily be placed over soft
foundation by increasing base slab projection to
retain base pressure within safe bearing capacity
of ground soil.
 Box culvert is easy to add length in the event of
widening of the road.

REFERENCES
[1] A. D. Patil and a. A. Galatage, ―Analysis of box culvert
under cushion loading‖, International advanced research
journal in science, engineering and technology, vol. 3,
issue 6, June 2016
[2] Ali Abolmaali and Anil K. Garg, ―Effect of wheel live load
on shear behavior of precast reinforced concrete box
culverts‖, Journal of bridge engineering, vol. 13, no. 1,
january 1, 2008. Asce
[3] Anil K. Garg and Ali Abolmaali, ―Finite-element modeling
and analysis of reinforced concrete box culverts‖, Journal
of transportation engineering, vol. 135, no. 3, march 1,
2009. Asce
[4] B. N. Sinha and R. P. Sharma, ―Rcc Box Culvert –
Methodology and Designs including computer method‖,
Journal of the Indian Roads Congress, October-December
2009
[5] Feirusha S. H, ―Simulation of 3d modeled box culvert and
search the maximum and minimum values of the principal
stresses‖, комунальне господарство міст, 2015, випуск
120
[6] IRC: 6-2000, ―Standard Specifications and Code of
Practice for Road Bridges‖
[7] IS 456: 2000 ―Plain and Reinforced Concrete Code of
Practice‖
[8] Lande Abhijit Chandrakant and Patil Vidya Malgonda,
―Finite element analysis of box culvert‖, International
journal of advanced technology in engineering and science,
volume no.02, issue no. 06, June 2014
[9] M.G. Kalyanshetti and S. A. Gosavi, ―Analysis of box
culvert - cost optimization for different aspect ratios of
cell‖, International journal of research in engineering and
technology, volume: 03, issue: 04, apr-2014
[10] Neha Kolate, Molly Mathew and Snehal Mali, ―Analysis
and design of rcc box culvert‖, International journal of
scientific & engineering research, volume 5, issue 12,
december-2014
[11] Osama Abuhajar, Hesham el Naggar and Tim Newson,
―Static soil culvert interaction the effect of box culvert
geometric configurations and soil properties‖, Computers
and geotechnics 69 (2015) 219–235
[12] Pavan D. Tikate and S. N. Tande, ―Design based
parametric study of box culvert using finite element
method‖, Journal of basic and applied engineering research,
volume 2, number 17; July September, 2015
[13] Ping Zhu, Run Liu, Wenbin Liu and Xinli Wu, ―Study on
optimal design of a box-culvert under road‖, Civil
engineering and urban planning 2012, Asce
[14] Raju Acharya, Jie Han and Robert l. Parsons, ―Numerical
analysis of low-fill box culvert under rigid pavement
subjected to static traffic loading‖, International journal of
geomechanics, 2016 Asce

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org Page 115