Volume of Duct Bank Excavation

by Scott Miller

Submitted : Fall 2013

Duct banks are conduits, encased in concrete, that are buried in trenches to connect power and communication cables and structures between these buildings. In this project, a specific case was provided, and a 60.8 meter long duct bank was to be installed in order to connect an electrical substation, which is referred to as E House 606, to a machine storage house. In addition to digging out the required amount of Earth to bury the duct bank at the necessary depths, the grade of the trench changes in two locations to avoid another duct bank trench. Also, in order to meet safety regulations, for any distance over one meter (Z) that the trench is excavated, a cut must be excavated on both sides of the trench equal to the depth over one meter (Z).

In order to find the volume of the trench, an equation was made for each part of the trench and the top of the grade. Then, an equation was made to calculate the cross-sectional area of the trench and cuts that allowed the top of grade equation and one of the trench equations to be plugged in. After making these 3 cross-sectional area equations, the integral was taken over the length of the corresponding section of trench resulting in the volume that needed to be excavated.

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