Main menu:

Version 12.0 Beta

Knowledge Base > FAQs

Why was Version 12.10 a Beta Version?

Important note: With regard to shear stress calculations, nothing changed from earlier versions of PC-Convey (that included shear stress calculations) to Version 12.10B.

The Constructed Waterway Designer is a relatively new tool developed by Integrity Software for designing and analysing waterways through new developments. It vastly simplifies the process of determining the dimensions required for a waterway to carry a low flow (e.g. a 3 month flow) in its Low Flow Channel and a high flow (e.g. a 1% flow) in the High Flow Channel, including a user-specified freeboard. The shear stresses on the cross-section can be checked (including for cross-sections on a bend) and, if too high, the cross-section can be adjusted quickly and the new shear stresses checked.

Integrity Software has obtained agreement from Melbourne Water and HEC-RAS experts that the mean shear stress obtained from du Boys’ equation must be factored up in order to estimate the maximum shear stresses on a cross-section. PC-Convey V12.10B factors the mean shear stresses up using relationships from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Design of Roadside Channels with Flexible Linings (2005). PC-Convey can further factor up the shear stresses to account for bends. (A great deal more information on shear stress within PC-Convey V12.10B can be found by searching for “shear” (without the quotation marks) in Help\PC-Convey Help – Index and browsing the three topics there.)

Extensive testing of the shear stress calculations in PC-Convey has been undertaken, particularly for constructed waterway cross-sections, which is what these calculations were mainly introduced for, however the software will provide shear stress results for any cross-section and it is not feasible to test all possible cross-sections.

Consequently Version 12.0 was released as a Beta version to gather feedback from the industry, with the plan being to release the final V12.X after a period of approximately 6 months. However, this process took longer than anticipated and so Version 12.10 was also released as a Beta version.

When Melbourne Water released their Constructed Waterway Design Manual (CWDM) in December 2019 they changed some of the previously agreed approaaches to calculating shear stresses. This necessitated additional coding of PC-Convey and resulting in the delay in releasing V13.0.

Version 13.0 contains Melbourne Water's requirements from the CWDM as well as those previously agreed.

Feedback

Please provide any feedback on the new (or any) features of the software, including any issues you discover.