LOAD DISPERSION ON BOX CULVERT

A CONTINUUM SOIL MODEL METHOD

DESCRIPTION

 Soil can be modelled in 3D to simulate the load distribution to the slab on which it rests.
 Isotropic elastic properties of the soil are good enough.
 The hexahedral elements are available in midas Civil, to which we assign the elastic material properties.
 The distribution is based on the size of elements and stiffness of the soil. The recommended size of finite element is L/10 to L/20
where L is the depth of the soil. Therefore, the distribution is unlike the theoretical distribution of loads i.e. at 45 degrees. It could
vary from soil to soil.
 This approach is possible since midas Civil allows moving load analysis over surface.
 The videos, hereon, show the modelling of soil and application of moving loads on the top surface.
 Although the simulation is fast, the analysis time is slower due to increase in number of nodes and elements. This can be resolved
with the help of GPU accelerator.
 This method is based on the finite element concepts and is a workaround for theoretical load dispersion. Kindly verify before putting
into practice.
MODELLING CONTINUUM SOIL The soil is assumed to be of 2m depth. The size of solid hexahedral elements is L/10, i.e. 200 mm.
MODELLING TOP SURFACE AND ASSIGN Landfill soil layer properties are assigned to the solid soil model to simulate stiffness of the
subgrade. A lane at the center is assigned to the surface for example.
MOVING LOADS
THANK YOU!
FOR QUERIES, PLEASE WRITE TO ME ON…
nivedita@midasit.com