Hydraulic design of paved areas

Design Guidance
September 2002
HR Wallingford
Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 1
Background ......................................................................................................................................... 1
Current practice and existing guidance ............................................................................................... 1
APPLICATION...................................................................................................................................... 2
DESIGN ................................................................................................................................................. 2
WORKED EXAMPLES ........................................................................................................................ 3
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................... 4
Tables
Table A Geographical locations
Tables B Tables for the estimation of runoff rates from paved catchments
Tables C Tables for the estimation of water depths on paved catchments
HR Wallingford accepts no liability for loss or damage suffered by users of this guidance as a result of errors or
inaccuracies in the data provided. HR Wallingford will only accept responsibility for the use of its material in specific
projects where it has been engaged to advise upon a specific commission and given the opportunity to express a view
on the reliability of the material for the particular application.
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INTRODUCTION
Background
In recent decades the increased use of car and air travel has meant that the size and number of paved
areas in UK cities and towns has also seen a remarkable increase. Paved areas include car parks in
new out of town shopping centres and supermarkets, park and ride car parks, and standing areas
for aircraft at airports. In addition to this, the trend towards pedestrian precincts in urban centres has
also led to an increase in large paved areas in cities for use by pedestrians. These large areas can
produce considerable amounts of surface water run-off in heavy storms, which need to be accurately
quantified for the correct design of drainage systems. Quantification of water depths on pavements
has also become an important issue in terms of user safety and/or convenience.
Current drainage design procedures were developed for small areas and do not deal satisfactorily with
the much larger paved areas that are common today. As a result, drainage systems for large paved
areas may either be overdesigned and unnecessarily expensive or they may fail to perform
satisfactorily and cause significant surface flooding to occur more frequently than is acceptable.
The guidance given in this document was a result of a collaborative research study commissioned by
the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Partners In Innovation Programme. Details of
the study are available in Escarameia et al (2002).
Current practice and existing guidance
Current UK practice for calculating the design rate of flow from an impermeable area assumes a
constant rainfall intensity of, for example, 50mm/hr and 100% run-off from the surface. The flow rate
is then used to determine the size of the site drainage system needed to collect and convey the surface
runoff to the point of discharge. This design procedure may be adequate for small paved areas around
buildings. It is however not satisfactory for large surfaces since it takes no account of the
geographical location of the site, the duration and design period of the storm, or the time taken by the
run-off to flow across the paved surface and enter the drainage system. It also provides no
information about two factors that are of interest to the owners and users of the paved areas: the
maximum depth of temporary ponding that will occur during the design storm and the length of time
for which that depth will persist.
In the National Annexes ND and NE of BS EN 752 Part 4 (1998) various methods are suggested for
determining the design rainfall intensity and flow rates. These methods range from constant-rate
rainfall to time-varying profiles and the choice of method is related to the size of catchment under
consideration. However, the more sophisticated methods require the use of urban drainage software
packages and procedures, which are not always available to the drainage engineer, and do not provide
any information on water depths occurring on the catchment during the design storm.
The new design method presented here takes account of the following parameters and is presented in
tabular form for ease of use:
the duration and frequency of occurrence of storms that might occur in different parts of the
country;
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time-varying rainfall intensity based on the 50% summer storm profile as recommended in the
Flood Estimation Handbook (Faulkner, 1999);
depths of water during a storm;
the duration that water is temporarily ponded on the paved surface;
the type of surface material;
the size, layout and gradients of the paved areas.
APPLICATION
The design method was developed using results from a numerical model of the surface runoff
process that was calibrated against extensive field measurements. The guidance is applicable to
impermeable paved surfaces of all sizes (permeable pavements are therefore excluded). It was
developed for four representative types of surface material (two asphalt surfaces and two brushed
concrete surfaces):
6mm dense surface coarse bitumen macadam (to BS 4987)
Hot Rolled Asphalt with 20mm coated chippings (to BS 594)
Pavement Quality Concrete with a brush texture finish between 0.75mm and 1.5mm
Concrete pavement with brush texture finish between 2.8mm and 4.0mm.
Application to other types of surface may be possible by analogy in terms of roughness with the types
listed above.
The guidance is applicable to plane 2D surfaces where water flows in a single direction - cases of
catchments draining into a central gully are therefore not covered.
DESIGN
The new guidance differs from current practice in that it is based on more detailed factors such as: the
critical storm intensity and duration for the particular geographical location of the catchment; the
frequency of occurrence (or return period) of the event and the characteristics of the catchment.
These are concepts that have been used in the determination of run-off from pervious catchments and
in the more complex urban drainage design methods, and are equally applicable to impervious
surfaces.
The new method requires the following:
Information on the geographical location of the site
The effect of geographical location on rainfall characteristics is taken into account in the new
method. For the application of the method the UK was divided into three location categories
(Locations 1 to 3) which include various regions, as shown in Table A.
Choice of return period
The design guidance in this document is given for two different return periods: 1 year and 5
years. There is currently limited information on which to base the choice of return period for
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surface runoff apart from Highways Agency design guidance for road drainage. Drainage of
surface runoff from roads is designed so that no surface flooding occurs on the carriageway for
storms with a 1 year return period (with a check for 5 years return period for limited
encroachment onto the hard strip or hard shoulder).
For most paved areas it is recommended to choose a return period of 1 year. Certain paved areas
such as airport taxiways and runways may require a higher level of safety against surface flooding
and a return period of 5 years may therefore be appropriate in these cases.
Design procedure
The design procedure to determine the maximum runoff rates and water depths on paved
catchments involves the following steps:
- Choice of the required return period
- Determination of the catchment characteristics (length, slope and nature of surface)
- Use of Table A for determination of Location Number for the catchment geographical
location
- Use of Tables B for the determination of design unit flow rates
- Use of Tables C for the determination of water depths on pavements.
Tables B and C give design values for catchment lengths between 10m and 100m and for
catchment slopes between 1/50 and 1/150. To obtain intermediate values not listed in the Tables,
it is recommended to interpolate linearly between two consecutive values.
Maximum water depths on pavements can be obtained from Tables C. Values are also given
corresponding to 75% of the maximum depth and the time for which the water depth will remain
above that value during the design storm. This provides the drainage engineer with information to
help decide whether such depths are acceptable or whether the drainage length needs to be
reduced to minimise hazard or inconvenience to users.
Tables B and C also give values of the design storm duration, i.e. the storm duration that produces
maximum runoff depths for the catchment and rainfall conditions being considered. The design
storm duration is often assumed to be equal to the time of concentration of the catchment, which
is the time needed for the whole catchment to begin contributing flow at the point in question.
This is actually only the case if the rainfall is assumed to be of constant intensity. The present
design recommendations take account of time variations in the rainfall intensity and for this
reason the design storm durations are significantly longer than the time of concentration of the
catchment.
WORKED EXAMPLES
1. Determine the design run-off flow rate and maximum water depth for the following catchment
assuming 1 year return period:
Pavement surface type: brushed concrete with texture finish of 3mm (approx.)
Location: Reading, Berkshire
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Catchment length: 60m
Catchment slope: 1/60
From Table A, the site is in Location 1.
From Table B4, the peak flow rate per unit width of catchment is 1.24 x 10
-3
m
2
/s (or 1.24 l/s per
metre width).
From Table C4, the maximum water depth is 7mm. Water depths equal to or above 6 mm are likely
to persist for just over 5 minutes during the critical design storm (20 minute duration).
2. Determine the greatest catchment length that produces a unit flow rate not exceeding 3 x 10
-3
m
2
/s, while not exceeding 5mm of water depth for more than 5 minutes, for a site with the
following characteristics, assuming a return period of 5 years:
Pavement surface type: 6mm dense coarse bitumen macadam
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Catchment slope: 1/100
From Table A, the site is in Location 2.
From Table B1, for Location 2 catchments 80m and 100m long generate unit runoff flows of
2.27x10
3
m
2
/s and 2.70x10
3
m
2
/s, respectively. From Table C1, it can be seen that for a catchment
length of 100m, water depths above 6mm will occur for durations of about 5minutes during the
design storm. It is therefore recommended to choose 80m as the design catchment length.
REFERENCES
BS 594 (1992). Hot rolled asphalt for roads and other paved areas. Parts 1 and 2. British Standards
Institution.
BS 4987 (2001). Coated macadam (asphalt concrete) for roads and other paved areas. Parts 1 and 2.
British Standards Institution.
BS EN 752: Part 4 (1998). Drain and sewer systems outside buildings. Hydraulic design and
environmental considerations. British Standards Institution.
Escarameia M., May R.W.P., Gasowski Y. and Bergamini L. (2002). Hydraulic design of paved
areas. HR Wallingford Report SR 606, August 2002.
Faulkner D. (1999). Flood Estimation Handbook. Volume 2: Rainfall frequency estimation. Institute
of Hydrology, UK, ISBN for volume 2: 0 948540 90 7.
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TABLES
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Table A Geographical locations
Location No. Regions
Location 1
Northumbria
Midlands
East Anglia
Southern England
South East Emgland
West Country
Wales
Location 2
Cumbria
Scotland (except Northern Scotland)
N. Ireland
Location 3 Northern Scotland
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Tables B Tables for the estimation of runoff rates from paved catchments
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Table B1 6mm dense coarse bitumen macadam (to BS4987)
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Table B2 Hot Rolled Asphalt with 20mm coated chippings (to BS 594)
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Table B3 Pavement Quality Concrete with a brush texture finish between 0.75mm and 1.5mm
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Table B4 Concrete pavement with brush texture finish between 2.8mm and 4mm
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Tables C Tables for the estimation of water depths on paved catchments
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Table C1 6mm dense coarse bitumen macadam (to BS4987)
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Table C2 Hot Rolled Asphalt with 20mm coated chippings (to BS 594)
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Table C3 Pavement Quality Concrete with a brush texture finish between 0.75mm and 1.5mm
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Table C4 Concrete pavement with brush texture finish between 2.8mm and 4mm