Effects of Soil Modulus and Flexural Rigidity on Structural Analysis of Water Intake Basins
Abstract: A water intake basin
is a buried box that functions as a water reservoir near shorelines. Number of
these structures has been increased in the recent years and for a safe design,
it is necessary to know their behaviour under applied loads. In addition to
common dead, live and seismic loads, the bottom of such a basin is usually
located below sea water level and endures uplift pressure as well as reaction
of supporting soils. Uncertainty of these special loads complicates the
structural response of this buried basin to the applied loads. Therefore, the
unreliability in the soil parameter and in the rigidity of the basin structure
is studied in this research by calculating the generated internal bending
moments. Different loads and load combinations have been taken into account and
finite element analysis is carried out for modelling nonlinear behaviour of
different types of supporting soils. It is concluded that the geometry and
flexural stiffness of the basin affects the analysis more than the soil
parameters because the contribution of the soil modulus in the total stiffness
of the system is negligible than the structural rigidity of the basin
structure. In addition, inner walls and geometry of the basin should be
modelled in detail to obtain acceptable results.
Author: Hassan Akbari
Journal Code: jptsipilgg170028
