Hydraulics of Multibarrel Culverts under Inlet Control
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 4
Abstract
The hydraulic characteristics of multi- and single-barrel circular culverts were compared in this study. One-, two-, and three-barrel culverts configurations, operating under inlet control, were tested in the laboratory with various approach conditions and barrel spacing (horizontal and vertical). The single-barrel head-discharge relationship was consistent with the average head-discharge relationship of the individual barrels in a multibarrel culvert configuration with a uniform upstream approach flow and uniform invert elevations. For the nonuniform approach flow condition, the single-barrel model overpredicted the average-barrel flow by up to 10%. With the middle barrel installed at a lower elevation than the outside barrels, in submerged flow the single-barrel head discharge relationship was consistent with the outside barrels, but the middle barrel was up to 7% more efficient than the single-barrel discharge. The flow rate variations are attributed, in part, to a reduction in approach flow contraction entering the center culvert in the three-culvert configuration and a nonuniform distribution of intermittently forming surface vortices at the culvert inlets. The results of a state (United States) Department of Transportation survey regarding multiple culvert use are also presented.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this study was provided in part by a Dwight D. Eisenhower Fellowship Grant and by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDNCHRP 15-24).
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Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 4 • August 2008
Pages: 507 - 514
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 3, 2007
Accepted: Dec 26, 2007
Published online: Aug 1, 2008
Published in print: Aug 2008
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