Owing to the huge damage caused by flash water and torrents in the desert roads, the attempts to prevent such damage have received a great attention. Culverts are the popular engineering tool usually used for converting the accumulated runoff water from one side of the desert roads to the other side. This engineering tool prevents overtopping which stops the safe traffic stream over the roads. Since the culvert entrance geometry is one of the prime factors affecting its accurate performance. The present study is a trial for increasing the discharging efficiency of such culverts to give more safety for the desert roads. Investigating the influence of using inclined headwall at the culvert entrance on discharge efficiency, its inclination angle in the same direction of the flow and in the opposite direction will be tested as well. A needed survey for references related to the current study topic, covers a suitable time period were included in a tabulated form, with the needed technical comments. The theoretical approach also was introduced. A comparative study was done for the results obtained by most popular researchers and the calculated discharging efficiency reached by each of them and given in a tabulated form.
(6) (PDF) Increasing the efficiency of under road culverts in protecting the desert roads against torrents & flash water.

Many authors and researchers examined and tested several methods and tools for improving the performance efficiency of the culverts. Owing to increase the importance of the desert roads nowadays for joining the new constructed industrial and agricultural communities all over Egypt, and because of the draught nature of that new desert areas, for which the desert road network was constructed, and the possibility of the harmful and destructive impact of the torrents and flash floods periodically occurs in such regions, our present work will be focusing on the under-desert road culverts. The role of the under-desert road culverts is the prime factor in the constructional, and traffic safety of such roads. Its efficiency in converting the accumulated flash water from one side of the road to the other side at a significantly very short time protects the roads against failure due to overlapping. The present work introduces a new constructional simple tool for maximizing the discharging efficiency of the under-desert road culverts and ensuring its constructional safety in addition to the safety of the traffic over them. The introduced tool (as the best of our knowledge) wasn't investigated yet, or technically examined by any of the authors reviewed in the literature. 10 models of the inclined headwall with different inclination angles in the same direction of the stream flow, and in the opposite direction were tested. The optimum inclination angle which gives the maximum discharge under the minimum U.S. water head, for more safety of desert road against flash floods and torrents was introduced.

Integrating with the national project of irrigation canals lining in the Egyptian countryside, the present study is introduced. The study presents a technical comparative reading in different theories and equations usually used for estimating the quantities of water that seep from the earthen irrigation canals. The quantities of the irrigation water lost due to seepage are great enough to decrease the wide gap between the needed and available quantities of water that Egypt seriously suffers from. The accurate estimation of water quantities that may seep, or leak enables the decision maker to choose the perfect method for making use of such quantities and where it may be used. From Assiut countryside the El-Sont branch canal and its off-takings was chosen to be our case study. After a careful engineering, technical reading in seepage equations that researchers introduced previously, the closest relationships to our case study were used. Results indicated that, using the suggested relationship by nazir Ahmed [1], and the Indian equation [2] gave the maximum seepage quantities for the entire El-Sont canal network. This seeped water represents about 21.5% of the total canal head discharge. Most of this lost water can be saved due to the implementation of the national project of irrigation canals lining.

In light of the national project for rehabilitation and the lining of the exposed irrigation canals which is currently under implementation all over Egypt, a field study is introduced to assess the technical, and environmental expected impacts that must be achieved in such a national project. In arid and semi-arid regions, with permeable soils like Egypt, water seeps significantly through the exposed canals cross-sections, in addition to the quantities lost by evaporation under high temperatures. Saving such tangible quantities of water became the most important goal that can be achieved to solve the problematic situation of irrigation water shortage that faces Egypt nowadays. This study is a field attempt to estimate the transmission losses in the El-Sont canal in Middle Egypt (Assuit Governorate) as a representative open channel for a specific type of soil, climate, topography, and beneficiary’s lifestyle. The produced and developed equations introduced and recommended by the most popular authors in this field were studied, summarized, and presented in a tabulated form to be easily used, and for comparison purposes. Using the recommended equations developed by the most popular reviewed researchers, the conveyance and transmission losses for the understudy El-Sont canal, and its off-taking canals were calculated and evaluated to be about 248628 m3 /day, i.e., more than 39.54 Mm3 /year. That big quantity of saved or recovered water can be used for reclamation and irrigation of about five thousand new acres in the nearby area. The study and the field trips, visits, and the personal direct communication with the farmers and beneficiaries proved that the project had responded to their hopes for an improved living standard, health, in addition to the environmental situation for all the Egyptian countryside.

The aim of this study is to implement both experimental and numerical approaches to investigate the permanent deformation in asphalt paving mixtures modified with waste plastic (WP) and crumb rubber (CR). In this study, three types of asphalt cement were used: neat binder (VB) obtained from a local refinery, VB+3% WP, and VB+15% CR. Two aggregate gradations were employed for the preparation of asphalt concrete mixtures as surface and base courses. The paper plan included conducting a wheel tracking test to investigate the rutting behavior of the mixtures. The input data was proposed structure of pavement layers was built on dynamic modulus and wheel tracking results obtained at various temperatures. The study showed that WP- and CR-modified asphalt mixtures (base course) with a coarse aggregate gradation can provide greater resistance to rutting than the unmodified mix prepared with a fine and/or coarse aggregate gradation. ABAQUS software was applied for different dynamic modulus data of asphalt mixes, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values of subgrade, temperatures, and tire pressures. There was a good relationship between the rut depth derived from the wheel tracking test and the ABAQUS results. The modified asphalt mixture prepared with aggregate gradation used in the base course and mixed with rubber-modified binder showed more rutting resistance than other modified asphalt mixtures. The novel rut depth model was set up using statistical analysis by analyzing 336 runs of the ABAQUS models.

The purpose of this study was to examine the high and low-temperature rheological characteristics of asphalt binders modified with waste plastic (WP) and crumb rubber (CR). In this study, three types of asphalt cement were used: neat binder (VB) obtained from a local refinery, VB+3% WP, and VB+15% CR. Performance grade and other physical properties of neat binder and modified asphalt binders were determined by the Brookfield rotational viscometer, dynamic shear rheometer, rolling thin film oven, bending beam rheometer, and direct tension tests the study showed that WP and CR-modified asphalt binders can provide greater resistance to high-temperature rutting and low-temperature cracking than the unmodified binder. The modified asphalt binder prepared with CR showed a better performance than the WP-modified asphalt binder at different ranges of temperatures.