Leonardo, King Phillip Cezar P.

5 CE-B

My OJT Experience

Its been two months since I started my on-the-job training in Woodfields Consultants Inc. My daily routine was changed from being a student and at first I was not used to it. I have to wake up early, prepare myself for work, and try my best to do what is expected of me and try not to embarrass myself. I was supposed to complete the 240 hours requirement of the school and may probably take two months. In my first week, I already learned a lot and the importance of my subjects. I realized how important for a student to have an OJT experience. Other than the training and knowledge that I received, I think the experience is the most important thing I got from the OJT. I was very fortunate to have chosen a company that shares everything that they can give to me. They never made me do tasks that are no related to engineering but instead gave me tasks that helped me improve my knowledge and the tools to help me complete these tasks. At first I was located at the CAD department. I was given structural and hydrological plans with some mistakes like spelling, and I was supposed to correct them. I was able to look at how companies make their plans and the system they use in making their final designs. The company specializes in flood control, and their designs involved bridges for the government. The plans that I saw consists of information like project name, site map, site location, assembly of bridge, length of bridge, width of lanes, borehole location, elevations, scouring depth, design flood level, original water level, design discharge, arrangement, configuration and location of reinforcing bars, and many other things. The current projects of the company is called TP- KAP (Tulay ng Pangulo Para sa Kaunlarang Pang Agraryo), which is obviously for the government. After a few weeks, the company transferred me to their hydrology department. At first they made me read a manual about the program that I will use that is called HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System). They said that the programs that I will need to use are Adobe Photoshop, ArcGIS, Autocad, Excel and HEC-RAS. They gave me the task of solving for the design flood level (DFL) for the bridge for a 50-year rainfall, and see if the water level will not reach the bridge.

The first thing to do is to put the topographic maps where the site location is into the ArcGIS. They already provided me the topographic map of the site location, and its adjacent maps. But first I must remove the borders of the topographic map so that only the main map would be left. I used Photoshop to remove the borders easily and accurately. The image left would look like:

Cropped Topographic Map (Cordon) I was supposed to crop the other topographic maps that were given to me. Sometimes there are only two, but most of the time there are four. All the maps used are adjacent or near to one another. There are multiple maps used because the catchment area will delineated later and may cross multiple maps. The next step would be to input the latitudes and longitudes found in each corner of the maps to Excel.

Coordinates of each map put in Excel The next step is to put all the maps in ArcGIS. The coordinates in excel could be imported in ArcGIS so that the maps would be in their correct positions. After putting the maps, the bridge location could be identified by inputting its coordinates in ArcGIS.

The topographic maps in place in ArcGIS. The green dot near the middle is the bridge location.

Next step would be to highlight the longest river starting from the bridge location, then going upstream. Then highlight all the rivers branching from the main river. After that I should delineate the catchment area. Starting from the bridge location, I traced the ridges of the mountains/hills, from a lower elevation to a higher elevation usually up to the mountain peak, then to a lower elevation until you reach your starting position.

Delineated (red) map and River (blue) traced The ArcGIS program can compute the area enclosed by the red line, giving you the catchment area. It can also give you the length of the longest river, as long as you highlight what the longest river is. Next I should get what type of land was in the catchment area. The hydrology department has provided me with a Philippine Land Cover. It is a file shows what types of land are in the country, and it can be imported to ArcGIS. I can obtain the type of land and its area by importing the Philippine Land Cover and clipping what is enclosed by the catchment area. ArcGIS can then compute for the area of the different types of land that was enclosed. The type of land is important to know the runoff coefficient, which will be used for computing the design discharge.

ArcGIS shows what types of land is enclosed and their respective areas. There is only one type of land (Other wooded land, Shrubs) and its area is calculated

The calculated data is the put into Excel to compute for the runoff coefficient, which is 0.350. the calculation sheet was provided by the hydrology department.

Next I identified which rainfall station is the nearest to the site location and use their obtained data, namely a,b,N, and K. The station used was the Baguio, Benguet rainfall station.

Locations of Rainfall Stations and their corresponding data. The Excel file also consists of the required a,b,N and K values to be used later. It is now possible to compute for the design discharge. The longest river length, runoff coefficient, catchment area, and the a,b,N and K values were identified. The highest and lowest elevation of the river can easily be identified by looking at the topographic map.

Design discharge computation using Excel. The discharge used is the 50 year return period discharge, multiplied by 10%, then rounded up.

Since the design discharge for a 50 year rainfall is computed, I should now compute for the design flood level. But first I should first know these data: cross-section points, river centerline coordinates, left overbank and right overbank coordinates, and station distances. All these data can be found in the CAD file given to me. The Cad file consists of the elevation plan and the cross section of every station. There are nine stations: one for the actual bridge, four stations for upstream and four for downstream. Right overbank is the distance from the right bank of one station to the next station. The left overbank is for the left bank. Measurement of distances should be started from the upstream.

Plan View. The right and left overbanks can be measured and the river centerline points can be known.

Cross-section view of one station

The X and Y coordinates can be shown by clicking the cross-section line and typing list. All these data will be used in HEC-RAS to recreate a model of the river at the proposed bridge location. First the river centerline coordinates; right and left overbanks data will be inputted to HEC-RAS. It will show a top view of the river similar to the plan view in the CAD file.

The river being plotted in HEC-RAS. It looks similar to the plan view.

The X and Y coordinate found earlier used to plot the cross section of each station. Next I must compute for the average slope of the river. The design flood level can now be computed because the slope, discharge and cross-section data are obtained. HEC-RAS can run a steady flow analysis after the required data are present, and will show the design flood level.

The design flood level shown in 3D. It can also be shown in 2D with its exact elevation shown.

And that is how they taught me to compute for the design flood level. Most of my training has been to compute for design flood levels using HEC-RAS and ArcGIS. I am thankful for the company for allowing me to be their trainee and sharing to me the tools so I can increase my knowledge in the field of engineering. Photos:

Me with the Hydrology Department

Using the HEC-RAS program to compute the DFL