Vertical Earth Pressure

[LakeNormanTiger]

Friends,

I work for a precaster and design underground structures. I have an enclosed structure that is buried 45~50 deep from the top of the structure. I am determining the loads and was wondering if I could be a little less conservative than taking the unit weight of the soil x the depth with respect to this load.

Is there any literature that someone can point me to.

Thanks

LNT

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

In a word NO. If anything the structure may see more load than the unit weight of soil x the depth. This is due to load arching onto the structure which is likely stiffer than the surrounding soil.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

Maybe if you use Geofoam or some other lightweight fill. Otherwise, I wouldn't risk it.

------------------------------------------
"Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters, and the Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.

Blair Houghton

 

[dicksewerrat]

What might this be? A pipe? a buried vault?

 

[Ron]

To reiterate what GeoPaveTraffic said "NO!". You might actually have more load than unit weight of soil x depth. You might have a surcharge of the structure, plus adjacent structures.