TIDC Research to Aid in the Rehabilitatation of Aging & Deteriorating Culverts

The 3D Printed Culvert Diffuser is a roadway anti-flooding design investigated by the Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center that increases water flow through existing roadway culverts while dispersing velocity at the culvert outlet to mitigate erosion and habitat disruption.

The overall goal of this project is to demonstrate a cost-effective and more sustainable solution to decreased water flow through slip-lined culverts utilizing 3D Print technology to extend the life and improve the performance of existing culverts and avoid disruptive road closures and attendant commercial losses, public inconvenience and safety issues of traditional culvert replacement technology. The 3D printing of the design allows for the capability to tailor the Diffuser inlet to match the dimensions of the often deteriorating existing outlet and print the complex tailored circular inlet transition to oval shape outlet in a single day, where conventional molding technologies would require hundreds of work hours over many days.

TIDC’s first prototype project was a 42-inch diameter 3D printed Diffuser that was 15 ft long and was installed in collaboration with the New Hampshire DOT (NHDOT) under NH Route 85 in Exeter, NH. This Diffuser was successfully installed without disruption to traffic and has performed as designed, even in the 100 year storms that hit immediately following installation.

To learn more about this research and the future work in this area, join the free TIDC webinar, 3D Printed Culvert Diffuser Technology, held virtually on Dec 11, 2024 at 12:00pm. 

The TIDC is the 2018 U.S. DOT Region 1 University Transportation Center located within the University of Maine Advanced Structures & Composites Center. TIDC’s focus is on extending the life and improving the durability of transportation assets. The University of Maine has partnered with The University of Connecticut, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Vermont, and Western New England University in collaboration with all 6 New England DOTs to create TIDC.