Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering and Management

Volume 3 Issue 3

Comparative Structural Behavior of Straight & Skew Box Type

Rail under Bridges
Sandeep1*, Kapil Bhutani2, Ajay Thakur3
1
Student, 2HOD, 3Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering, NNSS’ Samalkha Group of Institutions, Samalkha –
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India.

*Corresponding Author
E-mailId:-dagarsangeep22@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Box structure is an extensively used structural element which usually carries uniformly
distributed gravity loads along with lateral forces like earth pressure, breaking, tractive
forces. These types of structure are most economical structure as compare to other type of
structures like slab type minor bridges, Reinforced cement concrete or Prestressed cement
concrete I girder with abutment, steel structures etc. Box type structures are also very
efficient and good where the bearing capacity of soil is low. These types of structurers are the
simplest among the other possible structure and contain top and bottom slab and side walls
only. The nomenclature Of box structure varies from department to department and country
to country but method of analysis and design is almost similar. For example as per Indian
road congress nomenclature of boxes is done as per there span arrangement while in Indian
railway, this is done on the bases of their usage. All structure used to cross a hydraulic
structure comes under minor or major bridge type while structure use crossing are called as
low height subway or rail under bridges.

Keywords:-Prestressed cement concrete, culvert, overbridged, Indian road congress

INTRODUCTION But in case of railway, classification is

A bridge is a building that maintains
connections such as a road and a railway
with other moving vehicles without
disturbing the obstacle, which is a station,
road, river or valley. A building is referred
to as a bridge where it carries a road and
railway line or pipeline over a station or
district and overbridged where it carries
traffic or pipeline over a communication
system such as roads or railways. For
highway bridges structures can be grouped
into four categories as follows,
1. Culvert (Span up to 06 m).
2. Minor bridge (Span 06m to 30m).
3. Major bridge (Span 30 m but on stable
rivers and canals).
4. Important bridge (Span 30 m but on
major rivers or tributaries which are
shifting in Nature).
different. Classification of Bridges are as
under:-
1. Important Bridge
2. Major Bridge
3. Minor Bridge
4. Culvert
CONTENT
Advantages of Box Type Structure
Box culverts have many advantages over
the other type of structure like portal type
structure, structures having pier, abutment
and deck & slab type culverts which are
followings:
A. Low cost: box culverts have low cost
as compare to the other structures due.
B. Easy to construct: box type structures
are very easy to construct due to simple
geometry.

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 Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering and Management
Volume 3 Issue 3

C. Required no repairing. common on highways; river crossings and

D. Very effect where bearing capacity is
low because self-weight of box if quite
low and base area is high.
E. Good where there is mandatory to
provide cushion.
F. Easy to analyzed and design.
G. Quick to construct.
Box culverts / Rub is usually provided at
the right angle to the railway line, but
sometimes the direction of the road can
cross the railway line at a non-right angle,
in which case a skew box can be provided
(as shown in Figure 1). Short term, would
not there has been a difference in the
construction of the culvert but it may
require a beam at the edge and the
construction of the wing walls will need to
be arranged at a skew angle. Skew are
other extreme changes where distorted
geometry is required due to space
constraints. Comprehensive intersection
and space constraints in urban and
metropolitan areas. If road repairs do not
happen immediately Skewed bridges are
useful or due to the condition local to
sustain the economy and especially in
some areas elsewhere environmental
impact is problematic. In the case of
railways due to the provision of new lines
and congested areas it is not possible to
provide direct bridges. As well as to
provide high speed and other traffic safety
requirements, modern highways should be
as straightforward as possible and this
required the provision of a growing
number of skew bridges.

Fig.1:-(a)skew arrangements

Fig.1:-(b)skew arrangements

It may be seen some times that skew may time it becomes uneconomical in cases of
be removed by increasing barrel length of large skew angle.
box as shown in Figure 1 (b). But some

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 Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering and Management
Volume 3 Issue 3

Fig.1:-(c)skew arrangements

Another way of ignoring skew angle is to But in some cases it is not possible.in that
realign the under passing body at right case we have to provide a skew structure.
angle to rail line as shown in Figure 1(d).

Fig.1:-(d)skew arrangements

PROBLEMS WITH SKEW BOXES Difficult to Construct- Due to

A Box culver or rub with skew become a
complex structure and generate
complication for both designers as well as
contractor. We generally face following
problems when we choose a skew box
Difficult to Analyze- A skew box culvert
needs a detail modelling for analyses
which is a very complex process. Also due
to insufficiency of proper guidelines in our
codes make this work difficult. As per IRC
code skew less than 20 may be ignored.
And as per IRC 114: 2019, skew less than
20 may be ignored by considering skew
span in analysis. In this case it is also
clearly mentioned that skew more than
30need to analyses with proper 3 d model.
unsymmetrical shape it may be seen than
bar bending schedule is very complex.
Because the length of every bay varies as
per location and as per skew angle.
Also it is difficult to inspect such a
structure due to confusion between skew
dimension and straight dimension. Skill
labor required to do such work. High cost
due to high amount of reinforcement and
irregular shuttering arrangement.
Behavior of single cell Rail under bridge
with different skew angles is examined in
this study. Finite element analysis
technique is carried out with the following
specific objectives:
1. To understand how moments, along
and perpendicular the direction of rail

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 Journal of Advances in Civil Engineering and Management
Volume 3 Issue 3

line vary and to identify the
parameters which influence these
changes.
2. Variation in shear force with different
skew angles.
3. Also understand governing moments
and forces in design of such boxes.
CONCLUSION
In this study the behaviour of reinforced
cement concrete skew slab with two
different reinforcement pattern( one is
when main reinforcement is along skew
span and second is when main
reinforcement is perpendicular to wall or
along perpendicular span) having different
skew angle under static load has been
investigated. The following conclusions
are obtained from the investigations
1. Reinforcement along skew span is
valid for skew angle up to 20 degree.
Beyond this behaviour of box is very
odd.
2. Sagging moment is inversely
proportional to skew angle. And
hogging firstly increase and then start
decreasing as we increase skew angle.
3. Base pressure also depends upon skew
angle. Minimum base pressure is
inversely proportional and maximum
pressure is directly proportional to
skew angle.
4. Secondary moment and torsional
moment also increases with increment
in skew angle.
On the bases of above study I am trying to
give some recommendation for skew box
structures as detailed below:
1. Avoid skew angle above 30 degree by
realigning junction.
2. If we provide reinforcement along
skew span, moment in secondary
direction should also check because in
our study it was found that these
stresses are very high and can cause
failure. So for skew angle above 20-25
with this type of reinforcement
arrangement, minimum reinforcement
criteria will change and we should
provide minimum 0.2 % steel.
REFERENCES
1. Sindhu, B. V., Ashwin, K. N.,
Dattatreya, J. K., & SV, D. (2013).
Effect of skew angle on static
behaviour of reinforced concrete slab
bridge decks. International Journal of
Research in Engineering and
Technology, 2(1), 50-58.
2. Muhammad Hasan, S., &
Sakthieswaran, N. (2016). Dynamic
Response of Skewed Multi-Span Steel
Composite Bridge. International
Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology (IRJET), 3(04), 2316-
2320.
3. Meng, J., Ghasemi, H., &Lui, E. M.
(2004). Analytical and experimental
study of a skew bridge
model. Engineering Structures, 26(8),
1127-1142.
4. Singh, V., Chauhan, D., Solanki, G.,
& Tressa, M. (2017). Analysis &
design of box type multibareel skew
culvert. International journal of
advance engineering & research,
ISSN no.(o), 2348-4470.
5. Vinod Kumar, Y. Dr.Srinivas C,
Analysis and Design of Box Culvert
By Using Computational
Method,(2015). International Journal
of Engineering & Science Research, 5,
850-861.

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