Hydraulics

Normal Depth and Best Hydraulic Sections

of Open Channels
[7-1]



Dr. Mohammad N. Almasri

1 [7-1] Spring 2017 Hydraulics Dr. Mohammad N. Almasri [7-1] Resistance in Open Channels

This is now the start of the serious stu

This presenta,on covers the following:

Uniform ow in open channels

Manning equa,on: basic understanding

Designing channels

Best hydraulic sec,on

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 Uniform Flow in Open Channels

Uniform steady ow occurs when the ow rate

remains constant and the depth of the ow in the
channel does not vary

This is encountered in long straight sec,ons where
headloss due to fric,on is balanced by eleva,on drop
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Steady Uniform Flow in Open Channels

Thus, uniform ow in channels always exhibits equality
in the slopes of the energy grade line, the channel
bo?om, and the water surface

The constant depth that occurs throughout the channel

is called normal depth

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 Manning EquaCon
Applicable for rough channels

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Reynolds Number for Open Channels

Reynolds number for open-channel ow is:

VRh
Re =

In open channel, laminar ow occurs when Re < 500
while it will be turbulent when Re > 2000

Between these two values the ow is transi,onal

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 CalculaCon of Channel Dimensions and Normal
Depth

Water delivery canals are usually designed to carry a

specied discharge at normal depth

The design situa,ons for a given discharge are

normally presented in one of two cases:
channel geometry is known and the normal depth is
to be calculated

For a specied normal depth the channel

dimensions are to be determined

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CalculaCon of Channel Dimensions and Normal

Depth
To solve Manning equa,on for normal depth, we
formulate it as follows:

The normal situa,on is that everything on the right side

is known and the only unknown is either the channel
width or depth on the leS side of the equa,on

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 CalculaCon of Normal Depth
Example (1)
A rectangular channel 5 m wide carries a discharge of 100
m3/s at normal depth

The channel is running on a slope of 0.005 m/m and has a

Manning n value of 0.035. Determine the normal depth for
this situaCon

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CalculaCon of Normal Depth

Example (4)
A 3-S-diameter circular culvert is laid on a slope of 0.005 S/S
and is carrying a discharge of 25 cfs
If the roughness coecient of the culvert is 0.012, what is
the normal depth for this case?

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 CalculaCon of Normal Depth
Example (4)

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CalculaCon of Normal Depth

Example (4)

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 Example (5)
Water ows at a rate of 4 m3/s in a circular concrete
sewer (n = 0.014) of diameter 1,500 mm and a
Manning n of 0.015. If the slope of the sewer is 1%,
calculate the depth of ow and velocity in the sewer
= 3.5 radians

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Best Hydraulic SecCon for Uniform Flow

1 1 2 0.5 4 0.25
WP = 3 WP = 3 WP = 4.5
Y/B = 1 Y/B = 0.25 Y/B = 0.0625

0.25 4
WP =
0.5 2 8.25 1.414 0.707
WP = 4.5 Y/B = 16 WP = 2.828
Y/B = 4 Y/B = 0.5
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 Best Hydraulic SecCon for Uniform Flow

The best hydraulic sec,on for a certain channel is

the channel geometry that yields a minimum
we2ed perimeter for a given constant cross-
secConal area

It yields the least energy loss for a specic area

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Example

Determine the best hydraulic sec,on for a rectangular

channel with depth y and width B

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 Example

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