Investigation into the dynamic slenderness of reinforced concrete multi-cell box culverts for traffic uses

Abstract

This paper investigated the dynamic responses of most commonly cast-in-place reinforced concrete box culverts; and used the fundamental period of natural vibration as the adequate criterion to assess the dynamic slenderness of a given thickness of each of the simulated systems. In the course of this work, a given span and a given rise with variations in the thickness were numerically analysed until the fundamental period of vibration exceeded 0.7 seconds, (0.7s). And from the results obtained, it was found that almost all the cast-in-place reinforced concrete box culverts constructed for traffic uses are slender structures. This paper, consequently from the correlated results, recommended a range of ratios of thickness to rise to be adopted in the design and construction of reinforced concrete box culverts that would make the structures dynamically moderately rigid.