U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| REPORT |
| This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information |
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| Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-14-064 Date: August 2014 |
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-14-064 Date: August 2014 |
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The study described in this report was conducted at the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Laboratory in response to the need for guidance to evaluate the variation of velocity within a culvert cross-section to facilitate fish passage design identified by State transportation departments. The State transportation departments that contributed funding for the realization of this study were Alaska, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin. A 3-ft corrugated metal pipe (CMP) was used during the physical modeling phase of the research study. The results obtained from the physical modeling phase of the study were corroborated during the computational fluid dynamics numerical modeling phase of the study. This report will be of interest to hydraulic engineers and environmental scientists involved in the design of new or retrofit of existing CMPs for fish passage. The report is being distributed as an electronic document through the TFHRC Web site at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/.
Jorge E. Pagán-Ortiz
Director, Office of Infrastructure
Research and Development
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers' names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
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Technical Report Documentation Page
| 1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-14-064 |
2. Government Accession No. | 3 Recipient's Catalog No. | ||
| 4. Title and Subtitle
Fish Passage in Large Culverts with Low Flows |
5. Report Date August 2014 |
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| 6. Performing Organization Code | ||||
| 7. Author(s)
Yuan Zhai, Amin Mohebbi, Roger Kilgore, Zhaoding Xie, and Jerry Shen |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
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9. Performing Organization Name and Address GENEX SYSTEMS, LLC |
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) |
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| 11. Contract or Grant No. DTFH61-11-D-00010 |
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| 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Office of Infrastructure Research and Development |
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Laboratory Report |
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14. Sponsoring Agency Code
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| 15. Supplementary Notes The Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) was Kornel Kerenyi (HRDI-50). Steven Lottes and Cezary Bojanowski of the Argonne National Laboratory and Dr. Fred Chang contributed to this research. The Maryland State Highway Administration was the lead State coordinating with FHWA on this research. |
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| 16. Abstract A series of physical and numerical modeling runs were completed to support the development of a design procedure for characterizing the variation in velocity within non-embedded and embedded culverts. Physical modeling of symmetrical half-section circular culverts was conducted to provide data against which computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling could be validated. The initial CFD modeling featured two-phase numerical computations that successfully reproduced the physical modeling results. To further simplify, single-phase modeling and truncated single-phase modeling were evaluated with good results. For the embedded culvert runs, a successful strategy for representing natural bed material within the culvert was developed.
Once the CFD modeling was validated by the physical modeling, the CFD modeling was used to analyze the full culvert cross-sections. Test matrices included CFD runs scaled up to larger culvert sizes. One series of runs maintained Froude number based scaling and one series tested larger sizes without the scaling constraint. The CFD runs and a velocity distribution model formed the basis of a proposed design methodology for determining the velocity distribution within a culvert cross-section. Using the 42 CFD runs for a 3-ft diameter culvert, the 5 parameters necessary for the velocity model were estimated. Then, based on geometric and hydraulic parameters available to a designer, relations were developed to estimate those parameters. The approach was successfully validated on CFD runs for 6-ft and 8-ft diameter culvert models. The proposed design procedure allows a designer to estimate the velocity throughout a cross-section. These data may be depth-averaged to provide a distribution of velocity and depth across the culvert cross-section that may be used to evaluate fish passage. Although developed for circular culverts, the parameters used in the method are such that the procedure should be applicable to rectangular and other shapes. Two design examples and an application guide are provided to illustrate the method and the required computations. |
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| 17. Key Words
culvert hydraulics, fish passage, velocity distribution, CFD, culvert embedment |
18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available to the public through NTIS: |
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19. Security Classification Unclassified |
20. Security Classification Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages 134 |
22. Price | |
| Form DOT F 1700.7 | Reproduction of completed page authorized |
SI* (Modern Metric) Conversion Factors
| 2D | Two-dimensional |
| 3D | Three-dimensional |
| A | Cross-section flow area, ft2 (m2) |
| ADV | Acoustic Doppler velocimetry |
| Ap | Surface area of the wetted perimeter (culvert wall and bed), ft2 (m2) |
| ay | Variable dependent on embedment |
| Bi | Transverse distance on the water surface to the left (i = 1) and right (i =2), ft (m) |
| Bavg | Average flow width in the cross-section (half section), ft (m) |
| CAD | Computer-aided design |
| CCD | Charge coupled device |
| CFD | Computational fluid dynamics |
| CMP | Corrugated metal pipe |
| CBC | Concrete box culvert |
| CSP | Corrugated structural plate |
| de | Embedment depth, ft (m) |
| D | Culvert diameter, ft (m) |
| D50 | Median grain size, ft (m) |
| FHWA | Federal Highway Administration |
| Fr | Froude number based on average cross-section velocity and depth (Va/(gya)0.5) |
| g | Gravitational acceleration, ft/s2 (m/s2) |
| HEC-RAS | Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System |
| M | Velocity distribution parameter |
| n | Manning's roughness |
| p | Pressure on the flow field at the end of the control volume, lb/ft2 (N/m2) |
| Δp | Change in pressure from one end of the control volume to the other, lb/ft2 (N/m2) |
| Pb | Wetted perimeter for the bed material, ft (m) |
| PIV | Particle image velocimetry |
| Pw | Wetted perimeter for the culvert wall, ft (m) |
| Q | Culvert discharge, ft3/s (m3/s) |
| QH | High passage discharge, ft3/s (m3/s) |
| QL | Low passage discharge, ft3/s (m3/s) |
| RANS | Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes |
| Re | Reynolds number based on hydraulic radius (VaRh/v) |
| Rh | Hydraulic radius, ft (m) |
| RMS | Root mean square |
| RMSE | Root mean square error |
| SPIV | Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry |
| T | Top width of the water surface, ft (m) |
| u* | Mean shear velocity, ft/s (m/s) |
| V | Point velocity, ft/s (m/s) |
| Va | Average flow velocity, ft/s (m/s) |
| Vf | Maximum allowable fish passage velocity, ft/s (m/s) |
| Vi | Depth average velocity of the ith cross-section slice, ft/s (m/s) |
| Vmax | Maximum flow velocity in a cross-section, ft/s (m) |
| VOF | Volume of fluid |
| y | Vertical distance from the lowest elevation of the flow field, ft (m) |
| Y | Normalized Cartesian coordinate in the vertical direction |
| ya | Average flow depth (A/T), ft (m) |
| yf | Minimum required depth for fish passage, ft (m) |
| yi | Flow depth of the ith cross-section slice, ft (m) |
| ymax | Maximum flow depth, ft (m) |
| z | Horizontal distance from the culvert centerline, ft (m) |
| Z | Normalized Cartesian coordinate in the horizontal direction |
| βi | Velocity distribution parameter |
| δi | Velocity distribution parameter, ft (m) |
| δy | Velocity distribution parameter, ft (m) |
| ε | Velocity distribution parameter, ft (m) |
| η | Coordinate axis in the ξ-η system |
| v | Kinematic viscosity, ft2/s (m2/s) |
| τw | Wetted perimeter shear stress, lb/ft2 (N/m2) |
| ξ | Coordinate axis in the ξ-η system |
| ξ0 | Minimum value for the ξ coordinate |
| ξmax | Maximum value for the ξ coordinate |
