Slip-Lined Culvert Inlet End Treatment Hydraulics

Relined culverts must be able to pass the design flood while meeting the necessary embankment freeboard condition. For inlet and outlet control culvert flow conditions, the discharge capacity of a slip-lined culvert is influenced by the geometry of the inlet end treatment. A number of factors including: reduced inlet flow area, the liner pipe wall roughness, and the inlet end treatment influence the relined culvert discharge capacity relative to the original culvert. To develop a better understanding of the influence of slip-lined culvert inlet end treatment geometry on discharge capacity, four different inlet end treatments associated with a thin-wall projecting host pipe and the segmental-lining culvert rehabilitation technique were evaluated experimentally. Inlet control head-discharge relationship and outlet control entrance loss coefficient trends were evaluated as a function of liner projection distance and liner-to-host pipe transition detail (sudden or tapered). The tapered projecting inlet was as much as 7% more efficient under inlet control and approximately 12% more efficient (entrance loss coefficient reduction) under outlet control, relative to the nontapered projecting inlet condition.