Abstract
This paper describes experimental and numerical studies on the influence of the earth pressure of side wall and seismically isolation effect of under ground box-culvert by installing “shear stress reducer” on the top slab. Under ground structures are designed to improve deformation and toughness performance of the structure against seismic force. On the other hand recently technology to reduce seismic force acting on the under ground structure is proposed. This paper proposes an idea for the improvement of seismic performance of box-culvert. The idea is to reduce shear stress acting on the top slab by installing “shear stress reducer” between soil and the top slab. Low friction sheet and soft material were adopted as the shear stress reducer. Shaking table test using scaled models in soil box and the nonlinear numerical simulations of the test results by FEM were carried out. As a result, the shear deformation of the box-culvert with the shear stress reducer decreased due to the reduction of the shear stress acting on the top slab. From the results of the experimental and numerical studies the mechanism of reduction of the shear deformation was made clear.
