Abstract

Multiple cell reinforced box culverts are ideal bridge structure if the discharge in a drain crossing the road is large and if the bearing capacity of the soil is low as the single box culvert becomes uneconomical because of the higher thickness of the slab and walls. In such cases, more than one box can be constructed side- by- side monolithically. The box culvert has to be analyzed for moments, shear forces and thrusts developed due to the various loading conditions by any classical methods such as moment distribution method, slope deflection method etc. It becomes very tedious for the designer to arrive at design forces for various loading conditions. Hence a study is made to arrive at the coefficients for moments, shear forces and axial thrusts for different loading cases and for different ratios of L/H = 1.0, L/H = 1.25, L/H = 1.5, L/H = 1.75 and L/H = 2.0 for three cell box culvert. This enables the designer to decide the combination of various loading cases to arrive at the maximum design forces at the critical section thus saving considerable design time and effort.