Technical Papers
Dec 10, 2012

Alternative Solutions for Horizontal Circular Curves by Noniterative Methods

Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 3

Abstract

The most common type of horizontal curves used to connect intersecting straight sections of highways and other infrastructures are circular curves. Given the radius and the deflection angle of a horizontal circular curve, the other curve elements can be explicitly determined. However, there are 10 practical situations in which these parameters are unknown, and they have to be determined from two other given elements. In the present paper, these cases are classified into three groups according to their solution type. In the first group, direct analytical solutions can be easily obtained using simple algebraic operations. In the second group, full analytical solutions with physical meaning are not available, and in the third group, existing methods rely on a tedious trial procedure for most cases. The paper develops noniterative exact solutions for the two cases of the second group and noniterative near-exact solutions for the four cases of the third group. The proposed near-exact solutions for the third group, which have a maximum percentage error less than 2.5×104%, facilitate the design and analysis of horizontal circular curves.

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Published In

Go to Journal of Surveying Engineering
Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 139Issue 3August 2013
Pages: 111 - 119

History

Received: Jun 29, 2012
Accepted: Dec 6, 2012
Published online: Dec 10, 2012
Published in print: Aug 1, 2013

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Authors

Affiliations

Ali R. Vatankhah [email protected]
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering, Univ. College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Univ. of Tehran, Karaj 31587-77871, Iran (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
Said M. Easa, M.ASCE [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Ryerson Univ., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 2K3. E-mail: [email protected]
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Water Engineering, Imam Khomeini International Univ., Qazvin 34149-16818, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]

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