Pre- and post-rehabilitation behaviour of a deteriorated horizontal ellipse culvert

An experimental campaign was undertaken to assess the impact of deterioration and rehabilitation on the performance of corrugated steel horizontal ellipse culverts. A corrugated steel horizontal ellipse culvert was corroded using an accelerated corrosion technique and then buried up to a soil cover of 0.45 m. It was subsequently tested using simulated tandem axle loading. The culvert was then rehabilitated using the paved invert technique and tested under the same loading arrangement before being loaded up to its ultimate capacity. Results were compared with a previous study on an intact horizontal ellipse culvert. For the level of corrosion present, there seemed to be no impact on the structural behaviour as both the intact and corroded culverts had similar stiffness. Paving the invert did improve the structural performance compared to the deteriorated culvert. For example, the axial strains were reduced by 23% at the crown and 31% at the shoulder. The ultimate capacity of the rehabilitated structure was also improved as it failed at a total tandem axle load of 1600 kN while the intact culvert failed at 1325 kN. It is worth noting that both of these culverts failed at a load greater than twice the fully factored design load.