UNIT-I Reservoirs

Storage Works-Reservoirs - Types of reservoirs,

selection of site for reservoir, zones of storage of a
reservoir, reservoir yield, estimation of capacity of
reservoir using mass curve- Reservoir Sedimentation –
Life of Reservoir..
Dams General - Types of dams, factors affecting
selection of type of dam, factors governing selection of
site for a dam.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
The design of a reservoir involves the determination of
• The storage volume for - the conservation and flood control
purposes
• The pool levels - for navigation and recreation
• The discharge capacities of spillways - for the disposal of
maximum probable flood.
• The discharge capacities of the outlets - for the release of
conservation storage and
• Operation schedules - for critical, high and low flow periods.
This in turn involves the study of the physical and economic
factors in the design and operation of a reservoir.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
The physical factors involved are
(1) Study of topography for feasible dam site and reservoir
site.
(2) Adequate storage capacity
(3) Allocation of the storage space for various purposes
(4) Upper pool level to avoid submergence of urban and
industrial development and historical land marks and
(5) The low water level to draw water from the reservoir
for irrigation or power generation and to maintain
minimum depths for navigation.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
The economic factors involved are
(1) Capital cost
(2) Annual costs of amortization, interest on capital
cost, operation and maintenance.
(3) Lumpsum benefits for increased values.
(4) Annual benefits due to release of conservation
storage and storage of flood waters
(5) Benefit cost ratio and
(6)Net annual benefits to decide the most economic
project among the various alternatives.
Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
Reservoir yield is the amount of water that can
be drawn from a reservoir in a certain interval
of time. The interval may vary from a day to
an year. The yield may be expressed in cubic
meters per day or hectare-meters/year.
Safe yield or firm yield is the maximum quantity
of water that can be drawn from a reservoir
during the critical periods with a firm
commitment.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
Secondary yield is the water available in excess
of the safe yield during the periods of high
flows.
Average yield is the arithmetic mean of the safe
yield and secondary yield over a long period of
time.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
The inflow into the reservoir, the yield and the storage are
related by the equation,
Inflow – yield = change in storage
If the inflow is in excess of yield, the storage will increase and if
the inflow is less than the yield, the storage will be depleted.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
• Design yield is the value of the yield which may be adopted for the
design of a reservoir.
• It should be such that the demands of the consumers are met with
and the storage is not unduly depleted.
• For domestic water supply the design yield corresponds to firm
yield while for a reservoir meant for irrigation, the design yield may
be 20% higher than the firm yield. The value of the design yield
depends on the urgency of water requirement and the amount of
risk involved if the actual yield is less than the design yield.
• Demand is the amount of water which is to be supplied from a
reservoir for a specific purpose such as domestic water supply,
irrigation , power etc. during a specified time interval.
 Mass curve
Mass curve of inflow at a station is a plot of
cumulative inflows verses time.
• A mass curve be prepared from a flow
hydrograph of a stream for a large number of
consecutive years.
Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve

Inflow Hydrograph
Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve

Mass curve
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
• A mass curve is a rising curve and it remains parallel
to the time axis when there is no flow during a given
time interval.
• In another words, a mass curve does not drop with
positive values of time.
• The area under the hydrograph from the starting
upto any time,t1 shown by hatching , represents the
total quantity of water that has passed through the
stream upto t1 and is equal to the ordinate of the
mass curve at time t1.
• The ordinates of the mass curve for different times
and plotted at the corresponding times to obtain the
mass inflow curve.
• A mass curve is a continuously rising curve as it
shows accumulated flow.
• The slope of the curve at any point indicates the
rate of flow at that time.
• If there is no flow during a certain period, the
curve will be horizontal.
• A steeply rising curve indicates high rate of
inflow.
• Relatively dry periods are indicated by concave
depressions on the mass curve.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
• Similarly the mass curve of demand is a plot of
cumulative demand versus time.
• The rate of draft or demand is the rate at which
water is required for a power plant or another
requirements.
• The mass curve of demand with a constant
demand rate is a straight line having a slope equal
to the demand rate.
• The mass demand curve deviates from a straight
line if the demand rate varies with time as shown
in Fig.
Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve

Mass curve of demand with constant rate of demand

Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve

Mass curve of demand with variable rate of demand

 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve

The flow mass curve was first suggested by W.Rippl, an

Australian engineer in connection with the
determination of the storage capacity of reservoir.
Two cases :
Case – 1 : Determination of the reservoir capacity
for a specific yield
Case – 2 : Determination of the safe yield from a
reservoir of given capacity
case – 1 : Determination of the reservoir
capacity for a specific yield
Given the inflow hydrograph at a given site and the
expected demand rate from the proposed reservoir ,
the storage capacity of the reservoir can be
determined using the Rippl’s mass curve analysis.
 Determination of the reservoir capacity for a
specific yield
The following are the steps involved in the method.
1. For the given inflow hydrograph the mass curve of
inflow is plotted for the period of historic inflow record
available.
2. Corresponding to the specified demand, the mass curve
of demand is plotted. This is a straight line with a slope
corresponding to the monthly or annual demand.
3. Lines are drawn at each apex of the mass inflow curve
parallel to the mass demand curve.
4. The vertical intercepts between the mass curves of
demand and inflow are determined.
Determination of the reservoir capacity for a
specific yield
 Determination of the reservoir capacity for a
specific yield
5. The maximum of the vertical intercepts gives the
required capacity of the reservoir on the
assumption that the historic inflow hydrograph is
likely to recur in future.
Considering the reservoir to be full at A(Fig ), the
reservoir will be depleted from A to B since the
slope of the inflow mass curve is less than the
demand curve, which means that the inflow rate
is less than the demand rate and water has to be
drawn from the reservoir.
 Determination of the reservoir capacity for a
specific yield
• If the capacity of the reservoir equals to the
vertical intercept BB’ at B, the reservoir will be
empty at B.
• From B to C the slope of the mass inflow curve is
greater than that of the demand curve.
• Hence the inflow rate is higher than the draft rate
and the reservoir will be filling from B to C.
• At C the reservoir becomes full again.
• From C to D the reservoir continues to be full and
the additional inflow during this period will be
disposed off through the surplus works.
 Storage capacity – yield – Mass curve
Case-2 : Determination of the safe yield from a
reservoir of given capacity:
Given the capacity of a reservoir and the mass
curve of inflow, the safe yield that can be
drawn from the reservoir can be determined
by the following procedure.
1. The mass curve of inflow for the historic
inflow records is drawn.
Determination of the safe yield from a reservoir of
given capacity:
 Determination of the safe yield from a reservoir of
given capacity:

2. Lines are drawn from a point in the plot that represent

different rates of demand.
3. From each apex of the mass curve, lines are drawn
parallel to the demand line such that the maximum
vertical intercept between the mass curves of inflow
and demand does not exceed the capacity of the
reservoir.
4. The slopes of these demand lines representing the
draft rates are noted and the line with the minimum
draft note(slope) represents the safe demand rate
represented by this line gives the safe yield from the
reservoir.
 Drawbacks in Ripples mass curve analysis
• The assumption that the historic inflows are
likely to be repeated in future is not correct.
• No consideration is made in the above
analysis as to how the reservoir is to be
regulated to meet the various demands.
• No account is taken of the likely losses from
the reservoir due to evaporation.
 Problem on Mass curve
The following data refers to the stream flows at
a site where a reservoir is proposed. The
reservoir is a single purpose reservoir to meet
the irrigation of 106 hectares at a duty of 750
hectare/cumec, what storage capacity is
required for the reservoir?
Year 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Month

Jan. ----- ------ 200 400 100

Feb. ----- ------ 150 250 65
Mar. ------ ------ 165 200 50
Apr. ------ ------ 75 160 20
May. ------- ------ 65 50 ------
Jun. 3,400 ----- 50 300 -----
Jul. 12,000 ----- 28,500 10,000 38,000
Aug. 21,000 23,000 4,300 4,500 34,000
Sep. 21,000 8,500 4,250 650 1,500
Oct. 3,600 2,100 2,500 200 560
Nov. 1,700 550 750 150 280
Dec. 950 350 530 140 230
Determination of the reservoir capacity for a
specific yield
Duty = 750 ha./cumec.
Area under irrigation = 106 hectares
Discharge = 106 = 1333.3m3 /s
750
Annual demand = 1333x60x60x24x30x12
= 41.47x109 m3
= 41470 M.m3.
Capacity required from mass curve = 24,000 M.m3
 Problem 2
The following data refers to the stream flows at a reservoir of
capacity 2000ha.m.
Determine the safe yield from the reservoir.
 Monthly stream flows in ha.m
Year/Month 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Jan 0 50 50 250 ----
Feb. 450 150 --- 300 ----
Mar 550 200 --- 250 100
Apr 300 200 --- 250 250
May 250 250 --- 150 350
June 150 350 150 --- 450
July 100 350 150 ---- 450
Aug. ---- 400 200 --- 350
Sept. --- 250 200 --- 350
Oct. --- 300 250 --- 250
Nov. ---- 300 300 ---- 100
Dec. ----- 400 150 --- 100
Problem 2
 Problem 2
• The mass curve is drawn with cumulative inflows as
shown in fig.
• Demand curves with annual demand of
1000,1500,2000,2300,2600,3000 ha.m. are drawn.
• Lines are drawn from each apex of the mass curve
parallel to a demand line such that the maximum
vertical intercept is 2000ha.m, corresponding the
capacity of the reservoir.
• The minimum slope of the demand line for which the
capacity of reservoirs is 2000ha.m, gives the safe
yield.
• From the fig the safe yield is found to be 2300ha.m
 Problem 3
Annual runoff in terms of depth over the catchment
area of 1675 sq.km of a reservoir is given below.

Year 198 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
2
Run off 98 103.5 168.3 94 95.3 152.4 110 131.3
Cm
Draw mass diagram. What is the average yield form
the catchment? What should be the live storage
capacity of the reservoir to use the source fully? If
the dead storage is 20% of live storage, what is the
gross storage? Mark the emptying and filling periods
on the mass curve.
 Problem 3
Sol: The cumulative values are marked out and the they
are plotted against the corresponding years.
Year Run off(Cm) Run off Volume M.m3 Cumulative Run off
(1) (2) (3) = (2) x1675
100
1982 98 1642 1642
1983 14305 2404 4046
84 168.3 2819 6865
85 94 1575 8440
86 95.3 1596 10036
87 152.4 2553 12589
88 110 1842 14431
89 131.3 2199 16630
Σ= 992.8 16630
 Problem 3
The average annual yield is the arithmetic mean of the
given annual yields and is equal to
= 992.8 = 124.1 cm of runoff
8
= 124.1 x 1675x10002 m3
100

= 2078.M m3 .

Now, to utilize the same fully, there should not be any

spilling over the water and the yearly demand should
be equal to the average yield. i.e, 2079Mm3
 Problem 3
To determine the required reservoir capacity to meet
this demand, a line is drawn from the high point A1,
parallel to the demand rate, and the maximum
departure of this line from mass curve is B1c1
=1065Mm3
 Problem 3
The reservoir will be empty at points C1 and C2 and full
at A1. From o to C1, the slope of inflow curve is less
than that of the demand curve, indicating that the
inflow is less than outflow, and the reservoir is
emptying.
From C1 to D1, the slope of inflow curve is in excess of
the demand and the reservoir is filling.
C1C- represents the initial storage to meet demand.
Problem 3
 Problem 3
Analytical Solution
Year Inflow Outflow Mm3 Deficit Surplus Cum.Defeict Cum.Surplus
(6) (7)
1982 1642 2079 437 437
83 2404 2079 325
84 2819 2079 740 1065
85 1575 2079 504
86 1596 2079 483 987
87 2553 2079 474 474
88 1842 2079 237 237
89 2199 2079 120 120
 Problem 3
Out of all the values of col (6) & (7), the max. value is
1065Mm3 which represents the min. storage
required to accommodate this 1065Mm3 surplus
water entering during the years 1983 & 1984.
Gross storage required
= Dead storage + live storage
= 20% of live + live
= 1.2xlive = 1.2x1065
= 1278 Mm3