Design Aids and Further Reading

Design aids provide the technical and design information an engineer needs when specifying concrete pipe for sanitary sewers, storm sewers and culverts. They cover live loads and earth loads, supporting strengths, installation, the hydraulics of sewers and culverts, and supplemental design information — in short, everything the selection tables in this handbook compress into a single lookup.

The series below is published nationally by the American Concrete Pipe Association and is catalogued here so that the right sheet can be identified before going to look for it. Titles and numbering reflect the series as published; check the current catalogue for revisions and for sheets added since.

Design data sheets: loads

No. 1 — Highway live loads on circular concrete pipe
No. 6 — Concrete pipe selection: positive projecting embankment installations
No. 7 — Concrete pipe selection: trench installations
No. 13 — Jacking concrete pipe
No. 15 — Aircraft loads
No. 16 — Railroad loads
No. 17 — Loads and supporting strength: elliptical and arch pipe
No. 22 — Surcharge loads
No. 23 — Transition width
Nos. 24 and 25 — Three-edge bearing strengths
No. 29 — Multiple pipe installation: trench condition
No. 31 — Highway live loads on concrete arch pipe
No. 32 — Highway live loads on concrete elliptical pipe
No. 38 — Bedding factors: trench installation
No. 40 — Standard installations and bedding factors for the indirect design method

Design data sheets: hydraulics of sewers

No. 4 — Hydraulic capacity of sewers
No. 5 — Equivalent flow capacity of sewers
No. 35 — Partial flow condition, circular concrete pipe
No. 36 — Partial flow condition, concrete arch pipe
No. 37 — Partial flow condition, elliptical concrete pipe

Design data sheets: hydraulics of culverts

No. 3 — Hydraulic performance curves for common types of culverts with projecting inlets
Nos. 8–11 — Hydraulics of culverts: 12 in. through 144 in. diameter pipe
No. 18 — Hydraulics of culverts: horizontal elliptical concrete pipe and corrugated metal pipe arch
No. 19 — Hydraulics of culverts: horizontal elliptical concrete pipe and structural plate pipe arch
No. 20 — Hydraulics of culverts: concrete arch pipe and corrugated metal pipe arch
No. 26 — Hydraulic capacity of precast concrete boxes
No. 27 — Hydraulics of culverts: precast concrete box sections, 3 ft through 6 ft spans
No. 28 — Hydraulics of culverts: precast concrete box sections, 7 ft through 10 ft spans
No. 33 — Precast concrete box sections, partial flow conditions
No. 34 — Hydraulics of culverts: precast concrete box sections, 11 ft and 12 ft spans

Design data sheets: installation and miscellaneous

No. 21 — Curved alignment
No. 2 — Friction factors for corrugated metal pipe
No. 12 — Precast concrete manholes
No. 14 — Manning's n values: history of research
No. 30 — Flotation of circular concrete pipe
No. 39 — Low pressure air testing

Design and construction manuals

Concrete Pipe Handbook
Concrete Pipe Design Manual
Concrete Pipe Installation Manual
Concrete Pipe Technology Handbook
Design Manual for Sulfide and Corrosion Prediction and Control
Manual of practice on the design and construction of sanitary and storm sewers, published jointly in the water environment and civil engineering sectors
Federal guidance on sewer system evaluation, rehabilitation and new construction

Federal culvert hydraulics

For culvert hydraulic design specifically, the standard reference is Hydraulic Design of Highway Culverts (HDS-5), which covers inlet and outlet control, performance curves, entrance loss coefficients and improved inlets. It is freely available and is the document most often needed alongside the structural selection tables in this handbook.

Which aid for which question

How much load is on this pipe? — the loads series, selecting for trench, positive projecting embankment or surcharge condition.
What supporting strength do I get from this bedding? — bedding factor sheets Nos. 38 and 40; background at load carrying capacity.
Will this size carry the flow? — hydraulic capacity and partial flow sheets, with the roughness values discussed at hydraulic coefficients.
Which standard governs the product? — the standards index.