Effect of Parameters on Soil-Structure Interaction of a Buried Corrugated Steel Arch Bridge

Abstract

Based on an actual corrugated steel plate arch bridge, considering soil-structure interaction, by using the finite element program of ANSYS, a 2-D finite element model was set up to analyze the soil pressure and structural deformation under different load conditions in detail. Since this type of structure relies on the soil-structure interaction to share the load, as the structural parameters have a strong effect on the mechanical characteristics of the structure. So the soil pressure and deformation of the structure were analyzed by changing the parameters, such as the cross-section of corrugated steel plate, the elastic modulus, internal friction angle and Poisson’s ratio of the backfill soil. The analysis shows that soilstructure interaction redistributes stress in the surrounding soil and reduces the adverse influence of excessive structural displacement. Results reveal that the stiffness decrease of the corrugated steel plate is positive to the soil-structure interaction and reduces the vertical soil pressure. The increase of elastic modulus of backfill soil is positive with respect to soilstructure interaction and leads to smaller soil pressure to the steel arch. Larger internal friction angle of the backfill soil increases the difference of soil pressure within and outside the span and has slightly negative effect to the soil-structure interaction. Soil with smaller Poisson’s ratio has some positive effect in reducing soil pressure to the steel arch.