Horizontal Curve Formulas

Index
o Home Page
 Hydrology
o Flood Characteristics of Mississippi Streams
o Runoff Curve No.
o Time of Concentration
o Rational C Values
o Mississippi Rainfall Amounts
o Concrete Pipe Sizes
o ADS Pipe Sizes
 Hydraulics
o Pipe Flow
o Channel Flow
o Manning's Formula
o Kutter's Formula
o Talbot's Formula
o Weir Flow
o Head Loss
o Tank Discharge
o Drop Inlet Flow
o Pipe Data
o Equivalent Dia.
o Ductile Iron Pipe
o Sewer Houses
o Average Monthly Water Use
o Non-Residential Water Demand
o Froelich Dam Breach Predictor Equations
 Roadway
o Horizontal Curves
o Vertical Curves
o Parking Lot Design
o Rural Intersections
 Structural
o Allowable Bearing Capacity
o Simple Beam - Uniform Load
o Simple Beam - Triangular Load
o Simple Beam - Load Increasing to Center
o Simple Beam - Concentrated Load
 o Plastic Section Modulus
o Welded Wire Fabric
o Reinforcing Steel

Input Data: Results:

Intersection Angle = 30 o Radius = 3,819.7
ft
1.5 1,023.4
Degree of Curve = o Tangent = ft
P.I. Station = 5000 Length = 2,000
ft
134.75
External = ft
Long Chord = 1,977.2
ft
PC Station = 39+76.51

PT Station = 59+76.51

Horizontal Curve Formulas

D = Degree of Curve, Arc Definition

1° = 1 Degree of Curve
2° = 2 Degrees of Curve
P.C. = Point of Curve
P.T. = Point of Tangent
P.I. = Point of Intersection
I = Intersection Angle, Angle between two tangents
L = Length of Curve, from P.C. to P.T.
T = Tangent Distance
E = External Distance
R = Radius
L.C. = Length of Long Chord
M = Length of Middle Ordinate
c = Length of Sub-Chord
k = Length of Arc for Sub-Chord
d = Angle of Sub-Chord

L.C. L.C.
R= T = R tan(I/2) =
2 sin(I/2) 2 cos(I/2)
L.C. =R D1° = R 5,729.58 5,729.58
D2° D
sin =
= =
2 (I/2) 5,729.58 2 R

M = R [1 - cos(I/2)] = R - R cos(I/2)

E+R R-M
= sec(I/2) = cos(I/2)
R R
kD
c = 2R sin(d/2) d=
100
L.C. = 2R sin(I/2) E = R [sec(I/2) - 1] = R sec(I/2) - R