GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF HIGHWAYS

HORIZONTAL CURVES

1. SIMPLE CURVE – is a single arch of a circle.

ELEMENTS:
PC – Point of Curvature
PT – Point of Tangency
V – Vertex
I – Angle of Intersection or Deflection Angle
R – Radius of Curvature
T – Tangent Distance
E – External Distance
M – Middle Ordinate
C – Chord Distance
LC – Length of Curve
D – Degree of Curvature
 V
FORMULAS: T

𝐼 𝑇 PC
1. tan (2) = 𝑅 I
2
𝑰 R
𝑻 = 𝑹 [𝐭𝐚𝐧 ( )]
𝟐

O
Figure 1

2. 𝐸 = 𝑂𝑉 − 𝑅
V
𝐼 𝑅
cos ( ) = T E
2 𝑂𝑉
𝑅 PC
𝑂𝑉 = I
𝐼
cos (2) 2
R R
Substitute OV:
𝑅
𝐸= −𝑅
𝐼 O
cos (2)
Figure 2
𝟏
𝑬 = 𝑹[ − 𝟏]
𝑰
𝐜𝐨𝐬 (𝟐)

3. 𝑀 = 𝑅 − 𝑋
𝐼 𝑋
cos ( ) =
2 𝑅
𝐼
𝑋 = 𝑅 [cos ( )]
2
Substitute X:
𝐼
𝑀 = 𝑅 − 𝑅 [cos ( )]
2
𝑰
𝑴 = 𝑹 [𝟏 − 𝐜𝐨𝐬 ( )]
𝟐
 𝐶
𝐼 2
4. sin (2) = 𝑅
𝑰
𝑪 = 𝟐𝑹 [𝐬𝐢𝐧 ( )]
𝟐

5. 𝐵𝑦 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛:

𝐿𝐶 20
=
𝐼 𝐷
𝟐𝟎
𝑳𝑪 = 𝑰
𝑫

6. 𝐵𝑦 𝐴𝑅𝐶𝐻 𝐵𝐴𝑆𝐼𝑆:

𝐵𝑦 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛:

20 2𝜋𝑅
=
𝐷 360

20(360)
𝐷=
2𝜋𝑅

𝟏𝟏𝟒𝟓. 𝟗𝟏𝟔
𝑫=
𝑹
7. 𝐵𝑦 𝐶𝐻𝑂𝑅𝐷 𝐵𝐴𝑆𝐼𝑆

𝐷 10
sin ( ) =
2 𝑅

𝟏𝟎
𝑹=
𝑫
𝐬𝐢𝐧 ( 𝟐 )