Background

Culverts are used to safely transport water through obstacles such as road or railway embankments, and form an important part of infrastructure flood protection. Culverts can operate under different complex flow conditions, and further research is needed to improve capacity and reduce construction costs. This project/thesis will focus on the hydraulic effects of the culvert inlet design, and is part of a PhD-project at the institute (2021 – 2024). 

Main objectives

The main objectives are:

• To investigate how to optimize inlet designs to improved hydraulic performance
• To investigate how inlet blockage affects the hydraulic performance of optimized inlets

The thesis can focus either or both of the above. The work will be based either on scale model experiments in the Hydraulic Laboratory, or CFD simulations using OpenFOAM.

The project will focus on culverts, but is also relevant for hydropower intakes and similar structures. It is also possible to combine this topic with the effects of inlet blockage.

Tasks

• Scale model experiments:
  • Rebuilding of existing scale model to include improved inlets of different designs.
  • Creating a test procedure, including calibration of instruments
  • Conducting tests under both inlet and outlet control conditions
  • Data analysis and estimation of uncertainty and errors.

For scale model experiments, preparations will include the theory of culvert hydraulics and scaling of free surface hydraulic models.

• CFD simulation
  • Create a 3D model for use in OpenFOAM
    • Model stability and precision
    • Verification against previous test results
  • Simulation using improved inlet designs
  • Data analysis and estimation of uncertainty and errors

For CFD simulation, preparations will include the theory of culvert hydraulics and the CFD framework used by OpenFOAM. 

Suited/Relevant for

• Anyone that likes a practical oriented master and/or is interested in CFD simulations
• Anyone that is interested in flood protection and stormwater management
• Anyone that is interested in hydraulic design
• The project/thesis has transfer value to hydropower in relation to intake solutions, hydraulic design and capacity analysis