Study on seismic response of a novel prefabricated box culvert with split components based on shaking table test

Abstract

The prefabricated structure of municipal engineering may face the challenges of shared load-bearing and coordinated deformation under complex geological conditions, earth pressure and groundwater under earthquake action. This study investigated the seismic performance of a novel prefabricated box culvert with split components (PBC-SC) to be constructed in the class Ⅱ site. A 1:10 test model fully considering all connection details was prepared, and shaking table tests were conducted using El Centro seismic waves with peak accelerations ranging from 0.1 g to 0.3 g. The full-scale numerical simulation of the soil-structure model of PBC-SC was prefabricated with ABAQUS to truly account for soil-structure interaction effect. The results of shaking table tests and numerical simulations on PBC-SC were analyzed and compared according to the similarity ratio. Even under the excitation peak acceleration of 0.3 g El Centro seismic wave, the measured acceleration and Fourier spectrum of each segment had only a small difference, thus usage of PBC-SC as a global structure could offer relatively continuous deformability and good seismic performance. To decompose the box culvert into simple assembled components, the connection techniques such as cylindrical pin connection, tongue-and-groove connection and mortise-tenon connection were adopted to ensure the seismic performance of PBC-SC. The research results provided a new idea for the design of PBC-SC and assembly connections for prefabricated structure, as well as further techniques and referable data for seismic response analysis.