On-Demand Course

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INSTRUCTOR: 
Mark Peterson, P.E.

Purpose and Background

Culverts are used to carry water under urban and rural roadways. Proper design of a culvert includes a hydraulic analysis of the site conditions along with appropriate selection of pipe materials and end treatments. While some situations require a detailed hydraulic analysis using software such as HEC-RAS, many situations can be adequately analyzed with a simpler software package. This course will cover the use of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) software package HY8, which is a straightforward and technically accurate approach to culvert analysis. It will also cover the situations in which a simple analysis such as HY8 is not appropriate.

Selection of the proper materials and end treatments, including headwalls, improved inlets, flared end sections and downstream riprap aprons are also important components of a good design and affect the performance and longevity of the installation. This course will cover all of these aspects of culvert design.

Primary Discussion Topics

  • Data requirements for HY8
  • Hydraulic analysis using HY8
  • Selection of pipe materials and impacts on hydraulics, design life and structural integrity
  • End treatments including headwalls, improved inlets, flared end sections and riprap aprons
  • Other Software options

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

Benefits

  • Learn how to model different culvert materials using HY8 software
  • Learn how to model different inlet configurations usgin HY8 software
  • Learn how to interpret output results from the HY8 software
  • Learn how to select the appropriate software for culvert analysis, depending on the complexity of the site and the features of the software

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Identify the basic data needed to analyze culverts, both urban and rural, using the FHWA HY8 model
  • Design a basic culvert with different material types
  • Design a basic culvert with different inlet configurations
  • Identify the results of the analysis in the software output
  • Identify when use of HY8 software is appropriate, and when more complex software is needed

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Who Should Attend?

  • Civil engineers involved in designing culverts under roadways, or regulatory agency personnel responsible for review of culvert designs.
  • Public Agency officials responsible for culvert designs

Outline

  • HY8 Site Input Data
  • HY8 Culvert Input Data
  • HY8 Output Interpretation
  • Selection of appropriate culvert analysis software

How to Earn your PDHs

This course is worth 5 PDHs. To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short post-test online and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 30 days.