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. 

Main objectives

Different main objectives can be chosen:

• Effects of sediment deposits at the inlet
• Effects of trash racks and grates on capacity
• Effects of improved inlet design for increased capacity

The work will be based either on scale model experiments in the Hydraulic Laboratory, or CFD simulations.

Tasks

• Scale model experiments:
  • Build a downscaled model of the inlet design in the Hydraulic Laboratory together with lab technicians
  • Install the prototype for testing
  • Set up a test program
  • Determine bottlenecks, and suggest and test improvements
  • Documenting hydraulic properties

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

• CFD simulation
  • Build a 3D model for use in CFD program
  • Set up a simulation model in CFD program and verify simulation
    • Model stability and precision
    • Verification against previous test results

  • Determine bottlenecks, and suggest and test improvements

  • Documenting hydraulic properties

For CFD simulation, preparations will include the theory of culvert hydraulics and CFD. 

Suited/Relevant for

• Anyone that likes a practical oriented master and/or is interested in CFD simulations
• Anyone that is interested in 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.