Lock wall longitudinal culvert bottom lateral system can commendably adapt to shiplocks which have high lift,large chamber or small ratio of chamber length to width.But how to acquire symmetrical flow distribution in lock chamber is always a key technical problem that need to be solved.In this paper，two local physical models with different scales have been built for group of lock bottom lateral culverts and single lateral culvert.Layout and flow characteristics of lock bottom lateral culverts are studied by physical model experiment，especially including the inlet layout，area ratio between the beginning and the end cross section，dimension characteristics of side ports，energy dissipation modes，etc.Furthermore，main points and general items for layout of lateral culverts have been put forward，and mooring conditions of ship in lock chamber are also confirmed by hawer forces experiments in the whole physical model.Research results show that the layout of lock bottom lateral culverts is appropriate，flow distribution in lock chamber is symmetrical during lock filling，and the hawser forces on barge tows accord with requirements of criterion.