Soil–steel structure shell displacement functions based on tensometric measurements

This paper analyses the effects of loads that change their location, i.e. moving but quasi-static loads. Displacements defining the deformation of the soil–steel structure’s shell buried in soil are calculated from the results of measurements performed using a dense grid of points located on the circumferential section of the corrugated plate. In this way, all the components of the structure, namely the corrugated plate, the backfill and the pavement with its foundation, as well as the natural (real) principles of their interaction, are taken into account in the solution. In the proposed algorithm, unit strains are converted into displacements, whereby results as accurate as the ones obtained by direct experimental measurements are obtained. The algorithm’s main advantages are that the number of points is limitless, they are regularly distributed on the circumferential section of the shell and any displacement directions can be obtained. Consequently, the deformations of the shell can be faithfully reproduced. The algorithm’s convenient feature is that one can use a simplified computational diagram of the shell in the form of a beam having the shape of the shell in 2D space (without the other components of the soil–steel structure). The advantage of this measuring method (electric resistance tensometry) is that there is no need to build the solid scaffold used for displacement measurements. The research focuses on the analysis of the displacements and the unit strains arising during the primary and secondary (return) travel of the load.