Culvert Element Load [BC]

Culvert Element Load applies a user-defined uniform pressure to one face of the culvert. It covers the loads that are not produced by one of the dedicated earth or live load objects — a wearing surface on the top slab, water inside the barrel, or any pressure a project-specific check calls for.

General

Box Culvert: The culvert barrel this load is applied to. A selection is required.

Stage: The construction stage this load is activated in. Leave it empty for a model that is not staged.

Surface [Top Slab/Bottom Slab/Left Exterior Wall/Right Exterior Wall]: Which face of the culvert carries the pressure. Interior webs are not available — they carry no external face.

Coordinate System [Element Local/Global]: Whether the direction below is read in the element's own axes or in global axes. Element Local follows the surface, so a pressure normal to a wall stays normal to it as the barrel curves; Global keeps a fixed direction regardless of the surface, which is what a gravity-type load needs.

Direction [X/Y/Z]: The axis the pressure acts along, in the chosen coordinate system. In global axes Z is vertical, so a downward wearing-surface load is a global Z pressure with a negative magnitude.

Pressure Magnitude: The pressure applied over the selected face. The sign follows the chosen direction: a negative value acts opposite to the axis. For a wearing surface on the top slab, apply it downward; for internal water pressure on a wall, apply it outward from the cell.