Analysis of reinforced earth around flexible culverts

This thesis is concerned with the behaviour of flexibleculverts embedded in sand reinforced with metal layers.The behaviour of reinforced sand around the culvert is alsoi!1vestigc.te<1.An extensive experimental programme was conducted inwhich several reduced scale models of s and=cu L vert systemswere constructed and tested. The parameters investigatedincluded the reinforcement length, position, number oflayers of reinforcement, surface roughness, diameter ofculvert and soil density.The stereo-photogrammetric t.echn i que K-:lS used fordirect determination of the displacement fields in the soilmass at various stages during both construction and loading.strain fields were then derived from the measureddisplacements using a special computer programme.The effect of reinforcement on cu I vert behaviour wasinvestigated by comparing the results of each test withthose for the model without reinforcement.In general, it was found that reinforcementssignificantly improve the culvert deformations.