Solving Circular Curve Using Newton‐Raphson's Method
Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 118, Issue 1
Abstract
In highway, railway, canal, and pipeline locations, the horizontal curves employed at points of change in direction are arcs of circles. A circular curve can be described by seven principal elements: (1) Radius of the curve; (2) deflection angle between tangents; (3) tangent distance; (4) external distance; (5) middle ordinate; (6) long chord; and (7) length of curve. In conventional surveying, the radius of the curve is given, and the deflection angle between the tangents is measured; all other elements can be calculated. However, these two elements sometimes are unknown in the fieldwork. In this case, a new method must be considered. In this paper, a numerical solution called the Newton‐Raphson's method is presented. Using this method, the radius of a curve and the deflection angle between the tangents can be calculated so long as two of the other principal elements are given. To be convenient for actual use, a computer program is included.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Allan, A. L., et al. (1973). Practical field surveying and computations. Heineman, London, England.
2.
Carnahan, B., et al. (1969). Applied numerical methods. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y.
3.
Dahlquist, G., and Bjorck A. (1974). Numerical methods. Prentice‐Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
4.
David, R. E., et al. (1981). Surveying: Theory and practice. McGraw‐Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y.
5.
Hildebrand, F. B. (1974). Introduction to numerical analysis. McGraw‐Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y.
6.
Moffitt, F. H., and Bouchard, H. (1965). Surveying. Intext Educational Publishers, New York, N.Y.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 ASCE.
History
Published online: Feb 1, 1992
Published in print: Feb 1992
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.