ENV3104 Hydraulics II 2016

Assignment 1

Assignment 1
Gradually Varied Flow Profiles and Numerical Solution of
the Kinematic Equations:
Examiner:

Jahangir Alam

Due Date:

22 Apr 2016

Weighting:

15%

Objectives
1. Evaluate and apply the equations available for the description of open channel flow
2. Solve the equations governing unsteady open channel flow
3. Apply the equations of unsteady flow to practical flow problems

Rationale
This assignment is based on the material covered in this course. As such you will be directed to
attempt tutorial questions from modules 1-5 before starting this assignment

Important Information
Before starting please review the USQs Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure:
All assessable work in a course is to be the individual students own work, unless advised
otherwise in the Course Specification. It is unacceptable for students to share solutions to
assessable work on this Study Desk site, or in any other manner. Violations of this principle
are regarded as Academic Misconduct and will be dealt with under the USQ Academic
Regulations."
For guidance on what constitutes Academic Misconduct and its various categories, at USQ
refer to the USQ Student Academic Misconduct Policy available at:
http://policy.usq.edu.au/documents/13752PL

By submitting this assignment you hereby certify that:

The submission is entirely my own work except where due acknowledgement is made
in the text and that no part has been copied from any other persons work.

Special Instructions
a. Computer programs or spreadsheets must be the work of the individual student.
b. Assignments submitted without adequate proof of program validation will not be eligible for
greater than a C grading.
c. A proportion of the marks is allocated to the communication aspects of the assignment. Marks
will be deducted for untidy and poorly presented work, poor English expression, and failure to
cite sources of information.
d. Plagiarism is taken seriously in this course, as such your assignment report will be checked
using Turnitin and your spreadsheets (if you have chosen to use Excel or equivalent) will be
checked for plagiarism using Excel-Smash

Instructions for Submission

Submission for this assignment is in two parts:
-

Report introducing the problem, providing background in all relevant theory, descriptions
of methods and equations used and discussion of results.

Electronic copy of all computer code or spreadsheets used so the examiner can validate the
models

The report should be compiled in such a manner that assessment can be completed without access
to the electronic copies of the code/spreadsheet files. It is normal practice to include technical
details (e.g. computer code) as an appendix.
The assignment is to be submitted electronically via study desk. The link is available on the course
studydesk.

Please note that hand written equations within the body of the report are permitted. In many
cases they are preferred as they are simpler to produce and easier to read than poorly set out
computer produced equations

Late Submissions
If students submit assignments after the due date without (prior) approval of the examiner then a
penalty of 5% of the total marks gained by the student for the assignment may apply for each working
day late up to ten working days at which time a mark of zero may be recorded. No assignments will
be accepted after model answers have been posted

Assessment Task
This assignment is comprised of two questions with the marks allocated as follows

Question 1 Gradually Varied Flow Profile

Question 2 Kinematic Wave Model

40 marks
110 marks

ENV3104 Hydraulics II 2016

Assignment 1

Question 1 Gradually Varied Flow Profiles

Water is flowing in a long prismatic channel of trapezoidal cross section with base 3.5 m and
side slopes of 30 degrees to the horizontal. The base and sides of the channel are concrete with
Manning n of 0.021.
The channel is conveying a steady flow rate of 6 + ( 2 n1 ) m3/s.
The bed slope of the channel is 0.0004 + ( 0.0004 n2 )

Where, n1 is the second last digit and n2 is the last digit in your student number.
For example if your student number is 10005007648 then
Q = 6 + ( 2 4 ) = 14 m3/s
SO = 0.0004 + ( 0.0004 8 ) = 0.0036

The downstream end of the channel contains a weir structure which causes the water level to
rise 1 m above the normal flow depth.

Your task:
a) Use the direct step method, and the equation below to compute the water surface profile
upstream of the weir.
y S0 S f
=
x 1 F 2
R

where

FR =

V
gy

b) Plot the water depth against distance

c) Plot the longitudinal bed, normal depth, critical depth, water surface and energy line over the
length of this profile. (All on the same set of axis e.g. Fig 5.22 Chadwick)
d) Include sample hand calculation in the report
Hints:
- The size of the step is up to you.
- Use of computers for this task (Matlab, Excel etc is encouraged)
- When computing the water surface profile you should stop just short of normal depth
- The Froude number and critical depth for a trapezoidal channel are different to that of a
rectangular channel (e.g. need average depth ( y ) instead of max depth ( y ) in FR )

Question 2 Kinematic Wave Model

Marking Scheme

Marks

Formulation of equations and model

Including derivation of equations & implementation of

the equations in the model

30

Validation of program (steady rain)

Using the material on the final page of this assignment

25

Courant Check

Selection of appropriate step sizes that satisfy courant

for both the steady and unsteady system

Solution for 2011 storm

Hydrograph implemented correctly, all results

presented. Plots are very important

30

Introduction/Discussion/Conclusion

e.g. assumption, results, limitations of model

20

Total

110

Background
A small channel drains a large open aired car park. You have been assigned to investigate the
flow behaviour in the channel during a short duration high intensity storm rainfall event. You
will develop a computer simulation of water depth and flow rates in the channel when subject
to a lateral inflow due to a specified rainfall pattern.
The kinematic wave approximation is a simple form of one dimensional flow model, which is
deemed sufficient for this task.

The layout of the car park

You will use the carpark layout to estimate the lateral inflow resulting from the rainfall pattern.
For simplification, you can assume that there will be no loss in runoff. The inflow is running
down to the channel perpendicularly and the inflow is uniformly distributed.

Figure 1: Layout of the Car Park

ENV3104 Hydraulics II 2016

Assignment 1

The Drainage Channel

You will develop the model to represent the flow within the drainage channel solving onedimensional kinematic wave equations.

Figure 2: Layout of the Drainage Channel

The length of the carpark area is determined by the last digit of your student number:

L = 125 + N Last 5
For example if your student number was Q1121584
L = 125 + N Last 5
L = 125 + 4 5
L = 145 m

The specifications of the channel are as follows:

Manning roughness n = 0.10 for un-mowed grass.
Bed Slope = 0.005
Freely draining at downstream end

Hints:
Be careful when checking courant, which requires the celerity c = g y
Note that the celerity in an open channel is a function of the average depth y which for this
channel can be found by:

y=

A
A
=
Top width 2 2.5 y

Design Inflow
You will simulate the storm event that occurred on the 10th of January 2011 in Toowoomba.
From the rainfall hyetograph you have to calculate the lateral inflow assuming no loss and the
inflow is uniformly distributed along the channel.

Figure 3: Rainfall Hyetograph for Alderly Street (Source ICA 2011)

ENV3104 Hydraulics II 2016

Assignment 1

Model Specifications
Model Type:

1-dimensional kinematic wave approximation

Backward difference in x and Forward difference in time

Boundary Conditions:
Initial condition (t = 0):

Q = 0 and A = 0 for all x

Upper boundary (x = 0)

Q = 0 for all t.

Grid Step Sizes

Maximum distance step x <= 10 m
Time step: Must satisfy Courant stability condition

Your Task
1) Complete the tutorial problems 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 in Module 5. You will find full
solutions of first three questions in the study book that will help you to solve 5.4.
2) Adapt the equations developed in (1) above to suit the channel configuration
You will need to use Discharge (Q) and Area (A) instead of the unit width equivalents
(y and q) used in the tutorial problems. You will also need to account for the crosssectional shape of the channel
3) OPTIONAL: If you are not confident about your answer to the equations developed in
step (2) you may submit your working (formulas/equations) to the examiner using the
link provided on studydesk before proceeding with the numerical scheme
4) Develop a computer program (using any programming language or spreadsheet) for an
explicit numerical solution of the kinematic wave equations applied to the drainage
channel for computing depth and flow rate resulting from the runoff from the channel
when the car park subjected to a storm rainfall.
5) Validate your mathematical model by modelling the runoff under steady lateral inflow
and compare results with the theoretical results for steady lateral inflow.
You are required to check both the steady state rate and the depth profile

6) Modify this computer program to accommodate the inflow hydrograph estimated from
the storm rainfall. Then use this program to investigate the flow behaviour in the
channel. You will calculate water depth and flow rate at uniform distance interval dx
along the channel for the storm event.
7) Write up all equations, model development, validation, results and discussion in a
report format

Presentation of Results
The final report should include as a minimum:

Introduction and background, a description of the problem

Formulation of the finite difference solution,

Basic description of model;

Validation of the program for a constant slope by:

plot of steady depth profile for a constant lateral inflow of sufficiently long duration, and
comparison of your program output with the results from the analytic solutions of the
kinematic equations given below

Evidence that the Courant condition for stability has been satisfied for both the steady
inflow simulation and the simulation of the example storm.

Plots (for the given variable rainfall) of:

the runoff hydrograph (Q vs t) at the lower end of the channel (taken to at least 15 min
after the cessation of rainfall), and
the water surface profile (y vs x) when the discharge from the end of the channel is a
maximum. Also note the time at which this maximum discharge occurs.

Appropriate discussion. Some points that you should cover include:

i.
ii.
iii.

What are your assumptions and how they might impact on the ability of your results
to replicate flow in the real world?
Your results for the runoff hydrograph and depth profiles.
General conclusions of the practical use of your model.

Acknowledgement of any sources of information in a reference list

ENV3104 Hydraulics II 2016

Assignment 1

Program Validation
For validation of your program you will run your model with a steady inflow of duration
sufficiently long for steady state conditions to be reached.
Your results for this case can be compared to the analytic solutions as derived below based on
the concept from Stephenson and Meadows (1986).
For a steady lateral these are:
1.

The steady state discharge is given by:

Qmax = qin L
where L is the length of the channel. Your program should converge on
this result exactly.
(you should check this at the downstream end of the channel)

2.

By setting Q = Qmax and rearranging the manning equation the steady state
depth profile (y vs x) is given by:

q xC
y ( x ) = in

where , C and m come from application of Manning equation and have the
following values for the channel of interest:

S00.5
,
n

C = 0.66716

and m =

3
4

where x is the distance from the upstream end of the plane. Your program
should give an identical water surface profile for a steady inflow.
Note: In order to use these validations, you will need to model a channel with a 2.5 H:1V side
slope with a single constant longitudinal slope and constant Manning roughness subject
to a steady inflow rate.

References
ICA, 2011, The Nature and Causes of Flooding in Toowoomba 10 January 2011, Insurance Council of
Australia (ICA) Hydrology Panel.
Lai Y. 2009. Watershed Runoff and Erosion Modeling with a Hybrid Mesh Model. Journal of
Hydrologic Engineering 14(1).
Readings 5.1 to 5.4 in the Book of Readings (taken from Stephenson, D. & Meadows, M.E. (1986)
Kinematic Hydrology and Modelling. Elsevier, Amsterdam)