Worked Examples

Real stormwater and erosion-control problems — detention routing, sediment-basin sizing, RUSLE soil-loss, Camp's-equation, and forebay design — solved end-to-end with every formula, every assumption, and every number shown. Each example uses the same calculation engines that power the HydroComplete app, so you can open the scenario and tweak any input.

5 acressilt loam10-yr stormNorth Carolina

Sediment basin sizing for a 5-acre residential subdivision in Mecklenburg County, NC

Full RUSLE → Camp's → 7-bin Stokes/Camp pipeline on a Charlotte residential subdivision. Comes out at 65.5% trap efficiency — below NCDEQ's 80%, so the example walks through forebay/PAM/upsizing remediation.

1 acreclay loam12% slopemountain NC

RUSLE soil loss with cover-factor comparison on a 1-acre Asheville construction site

Same 1-acre Asheville site solved four times: bare grading, straw mulch, erosion blanket, temporary seed. Shows where the C-factor row in the RUSLE table actually moves the needle.

QA checksilt loamdesign review6 acres

Trap-efficiency check for an existing sediment basin: Camp's equation, back-solved

Inherited a basin design from a similar prior project. Run the math before submitting: A_s and Q give the capture particle, then 7-bin Stokes/Camp gives 67% trap efficiency — below NCDEQ. What to do.

myth-bustersilt loam5 acresseries basin

Does a forebay improve trap efficiency? A worked counter-example

A widely-repeated rule says forebays raise trap efficiency. The math says otherwise: 65.5% → 66.0% with 10% forebay, → 67.0% with 40% forebay. Forebays do other useful things — but they're not a capture-rate fix.

PAM5 acressilt loamNPDES

PAM (polyacrylamide) in a sediment basin: from 65% to 92% trap efficiency

Same 5-acre basin from scenario 1. With 5 ppm anionic PAM dosed at the inflow, the 7-bin trap efficiency moves from 65.5% to ~92% — without enlarging the basin. Dosing rate, application methods, cost, and the NPDES turbidity story.

10 acrescommercialModified PulsNorth Carolina

Detention pond routing to the pre-development peak: a 10-acre commercial site in Wake County, NC

SCS runoff for pre and post conditions (14 cfs vs 41 cfs), TR-55 storage estimate, a two-stage outlet, and a full Modified Puls route that brings the 10-yr peak back under the allowable release. Every formula and number shown.

roadside ditchtrapezoidalgrass-linedNorth Carolina

Sizing a trapezoidal roadside channel: Manning's normal depth, critical depth, and Froude number

A grass-lined trapezoidal roadside ditch carrying 25 cfs: Manning's normal depth solved by iteration (1.17 ft), velocity 3.9 ft/s, critical depth 1.05 ft, Froude 0.81 (subcritical). Then the permissible-velocity lining check and freeboard. Pure hand math, no nomographs.

3 acrescommercialbioretentionNorth Carolina

Sizing a bioretention cell from the Water Quality Volume: a 3-acre commercial site in NC

A 3-acre, 65%-impervious commercial site: runoff coefficient Rv = 0.635, Water Quality Volume = 6,900 ft³ from the 1-inch storm, and a bioretention cell sized by the Darcy filter-bed equation to ~1,540 ft² of surface with a 48-hour drawdown. Every formula shown.

watershedTR-553-segmentNorth Carolina

Time of concentration the right way: sheet, shallow-concentrated, and channel flow (NC)

A development catchment's flow path split into sheet flow (0.225 hr), shallow concentrated flow (0.197 hr), and channel flow (0.139 hr), summed to Tc = 0.56 hr (34 min). The single input that most distorts peak flow when engineers get it wrong.

8 acresstorm drainIDFNorth Carolina

Rational method peak flow for a storm-drain inlet: composite C, IDF intensity, and the 200-acre limit (NC)

An 8-acre mixed catchment to a storm-drain inlet: area-weighted C = 0.55, design intensity 5.8 in/hr at the 15-min Tc (10-yr IDF), Q = CiA = 25.5 cfs. Plus the assumptions that make the Rational method valid — and when it isn't.