2011•Unpublished venueRequires access
Laboratory Modeling of Energy Dissipation in Broken-back Culverts – Phase II
Avdhesh K. Tyagi, John N. Veenstra, James Brown, Abdelfatah K. Ali, Nicholas Johnson
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Abstract
This report represents Phase II of broken-back culverts with a drop of 6 feet. The first phase of this research was performed for a drop of 24 feet. This research investigates the reduction in scour downstream of a broken-back culvert by forming a hydraulic jump inside the culvert. A broken-back culvert is used in areas of high relief and steep topography as it has one or more breaks in profile slope. A broken-back culvert in the laboratory represents a 1 (vertical) to 2 (horizontal) slope after the upstream inlet and then continuing 138 feet at a 1 percent slope in the flat part of the culvert to the downstream outlet. The prototypes for these experiments were either a two barrel 10-foot by 10-foot, or a two barrel 10-foot by 20-foot reinforced concrete. The drop between inlet and outlet is selected as 6 feet. Three flow conditions were simulated, consisting of 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 times the culvert depth. The Froude number of the hydraulic jump created in the flat part of the culvert ranges between 1.8 and 2.3. This Froude number classifies the jump as a weak jump. The jump in experiments began nearly at the toe by placing sills in the flat part. The optimal location was determined at a distance of 42 feet from the outlet face of the culvert in pressure flow conditions. The sills contain two small orifices at the bottom to allow the culvert to completely drain. The impact of friction blocks was found to be minimal. No friction blocks were used to further dissipate the energy. The length of the culvert cannot be reduced as the pressure flow fills up the culvert barrels completely. For new culvert construction, the best option to maximize energy dissipation under open channel flow conditions is to use one sill located 69 feet from the outlet. Again, frictional blocks had minimum effect in further reduction of energy. The maximum length of the culvert can be reduced by 42 feet to 56 feet. Such a scenario is important where right-of-way problems exist for culvert construction.