Published Paper Details:

Box culverts are very important part of a transportation network as they provide a cost-effective alternate to substantial bridges. A culvert is a structure that allows water to flow under a road ways, railways, or similar obstruction from one side to the other side. A culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. Culverts are commonly used both as cross drains for channel release and to pass water under a road at natural drainage and river crossings. A culvert may be a bridge like structure designed to allow vehicle or pedestrian traffic to cross over the watercourse while permitting suitable opening for the water. Culverts can be of different shapes such as arch, slab and box. These can be constructed with different material such as masonry (brick, stone etc.) or reinforced cement concrete. Since culvert pass through the earthen embankment, these are subjected to same traffic loads as the road carries and therefore, required to be designed for such loads. This Paper deals with box culverts made of RCC, without cushion. The size, invert level, layout etc. are decided by hydraulic considerations and site conditions. The scope of this Paper has been further restricted to the structural design of box. The structural design involves consideration of load cases (box empty, full, surcharge loads etc.) and factors like live load, effective width, braking force, dispersal of load through fill, impact factor, co-efficient of earth pressure etc. Relevant IRC Codes are required to be referred. The structural elements are required to be designed to withstand maximum bending moment and shear force. The Paper provides full discussions on the provisions in the Codes, considerations and justification of all the above aspects on design. Box Culverts are required to be provided under earth embankment for crossing of water course like streams, Nallas across the embankment as road embankment cannot be allowed to obstruct the natural water way. The culverts are also required to balance the flood water on both sides of earth embankment to reduce flood level on one side of road thereby decreasing the water head consequently reducing the flood menace. Culverts can be of different shapes such as arch, slab and box. These can be constructed with different material such as masonry (brick, stone etc) or reinforced cement concrete. Since culvert pass through the earthen embankment, these are subjected to same traffic loads as the road carries and therefore, required to be designed for such loads. The size, invert level, layout etc. are decided by hydraulic considerations and site conditions. The cushion depends on road profile at the culvert location. The structural design involves consideration of load cases (box empty, full, surcharge loads etc.) and factors like live load, effective width, braking force, dispersal of load through fill, impact factor, co-efficient of earth pressure etc. Relevant IRC Codes are required to be referred in the analysis and design of box culverts. The aim of this project is to analyse the box culvert using STAAD PRO software. The structural elements of box culvert are designed to withstand maximum bending moment and shear force. The results obtained from STAAD are almost similar to manual calculations.