OptiSurface Newsletter – 2016 Mar

Welcome to the third OptiSurface Newsletter.

I hope you had a good Easter. I enjoyed a break in Sydney with the family including seeing the Socceroos beat Jordan 5:1 in a World Cup Qualifier.

If you can’t see any images below, click ‘Display images below’ or similar in your email software.

Our News feed has been busy again this month as you can see below.

The Design Of The Month shows subzones used with a 4Way surface for dryland drainage.

The Feature Of The Month explains how our unique ‘Subzones’ can be used to add special design features to a sub area of a field.

If you have any questions or problems that we may help you solve or if you have any questions at all, feel free to reply to this email or call me on +61 405-686-425 (Australia) or Preston on +1 870-340-2020 (USA).

This melon hole field was a complex design. OptiSurface 4Way was used to allow water to meander across the field to drain but a Ridge Subzone (red) in the east ensures water do not drain to the adjacent block.

Exclusion Subzones (pink) were used to mark where a drain channel will be added. It tells OptiSurface water can drain into the Exclusion Subzones, acting like a boundary inside the boundary.

The small green subzones are just Normal Subzones but the Min. Elevation is ticked ON and defined to make sure that area was not cutting too much but still drains to the Exclusion Subzone.

Earthworks for the eastern half of the field is balanced within itself by using a Normal Subzone with the Balance Earthworks ticked ON with Cut to Export and Fill to Import defined as zero.

Finally, breaklines were used to create the drain channels with a 0.05% slope, a 5m wide base and batters up by 5% to the surface.

Total earthworks calculated was only at 208m3/ha – quite low for a complex design.

Normal: This is the default subzone type when you draw a subzone. It can apply different design parameters to the calculation grid points that fall within that subzone.

Valley: This is a special type of subzone used to guide water to flow to a desired location. It can also apply different parameters. Note: The valley subzone should extend to just outside the boundary zone. Only effective when used in OptiSurface 2Way and OptiSurface 4Way.

Ridge: This is a special type of subzone that behaves like a barrier, preventing water to flow to the subzone. It can also apply different design parameters. Note: The ridge subzone should ideally extend to just outside the boundary zone and go back from one side of the boundary to the other to work well. Only effective when used in OptiSurface 2Way and OptiSurface 4Way.

Exclusion: Points inside this subzone are not included in the calculation of the landform design.

Inflow: Used for Runoff Analysis. Adds an inflow from a watershed going into the field.

Balance Earthworks: Ticking this ON will balance the earthworks withing the subzone when Fill to Import and Cut to Export are set to zero. Note: The earthworks within the boundary zone is the master balance for the boundary and any balancing within the subzones are nested within the boundary. For example, if the boundary zone balances to zero import or export but a subzone has an import of 1000 m3 then the areas outside the subzone but inside the boundary will contribute 1000m3 of cut into the subzone. So, the subzone is like a sub-balance as well, i.e it is not a separate balance.

Fill to Import (m3 or yd3): Defines the volume of soil to bring into the subzone boundary area to the field boundary area. This volume is taken into account when balancing earthworks to the Cut/Fill Ratio.

Cut to Export (m3 or yd3): Defines the volume of soil to remove from the subzone boundary area to the field boundary area. This volume is taken into account when balancing earthworks to the Cut/Fill Ratio.