Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines (074) 442-3316 local 141

Name: Lingbanan, Harvey Carl P. Date: 12/02/2020

Schedule: MTH 1:30- 5:30 Group no.: _____________

Experiment No. 4
RECTANGULAR WEIR

I. Specific objectives:

1. To determine the coefficient of discharge, Cd of a rectangular weir.

2. To compare the actual discharge obtained from the experiment to that of the
discharge from Francis formula.
3. To compare the coefficient of discharge obtained from the experiment to that
of the coefficient of discharge from Bazin’s formula.

II. Apparatus:

Flume Volumetric tank

Meter stick Weighing scale
Stopwatch Vernier caliper

III. Theory

A. The theoretical discharge through a rectangular notch or weir is given by the

general formula,
𝟑
𝟐
𝑸𝒕 = 𝑩 √2g H𝟐 (1)
𝟑

where Qt - theoretical discharge

B - width of the weir
H - head over the sill

The value of Qt given by the equation (1) is too high because no account has
been taken of energy lost and also because there will be a substantial
reduction in the width and depth of the weir cross-section because the curve
path lines of the liquid.

The actual discharge will be equal to the theoretical discharge multiplied by the
coefficient of discharge, Cd.
𝟑
𝟐
𝑸𝒂 = C𝒅 𝑩 √2g H𝟐 (2)
𝟑

𝑸𝒂
𝑪𝒅 = 𝟑
(3)
𝟐
𝟑 𝑩 √ 𝟐𝒈𝑯𝟐

B. The Francis formula for a rectangular weir is given by

𝟑
𝟐
𝑸𝒂 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟐𝟐(𝑩 − 𝟎. 𝟏𝒏𝑯) ( ) √𝟐𝒈𝑯𝟐
𝟑
 where

𝑄𝑎 - actual discharge
0.622 - coefficient of discharge
B - width of the weir
H - head over sill
n - number of contracted portions of weir

C. The coefficient of discharge of a rectangular weir varies with the head over sill.
The coefficient Cd in formula (2) can be estimated from Bazin’s formula.

𝟎. 𝟎𝟎𝟒𝟓 𝑯 𝟐
𝑪𝒅 = (𝟎. 𝟔𝟎𝟕 + ) [𝟏 + 𝟎. 𝟓𝟓 ( ) ]
𝑯 𝑷+𝑯

Where P - height of sill above floor of channel in meters.

IV. Procedure

1. Fill up the source tank with water for at least three-fifth (3/5) of its height.
2. Before putting the rectangular notch into place, measure carefully the width
using Vernier caliper.

flume rectangular
weir/notch

approx level of water

pump
source tank
floor line

3. Switch on the pump and allow water to flow until the depth of flow is higher
than the sill.

H
d, depth of flow sill
P

B
 4. Start with a head, H of at least 10 mm. While the flow is in progress, the rate
of flow (actual discharge) can be measured by collecting water in the
volumetric tank. Record the time of collection.

𝑾𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 = 𝑾𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒌+𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 − 𝑾𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒌

𝑾𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓
𝑽𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 =
𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓

𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑽𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓

𝑸𝒂 = =
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒑𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆

5. Similar reading must be taken at series of increasing the head, H, at about five
(5) readings, roughly spread in the range of 10 mm to 50 mm.

6. Tabulate all data accordingly.

Table 1. Experiment result using rectangular weir.

weight volume Actual theoretical

head,
No. of of of time discharge, discharge
H 𝑪𝒅
Trials water water (sec) 𝑸𝒂 𝑸𝒕
(m)
(kg) (m3) (m3/s) (m3/s)

1 0.01 12.0 0.012 80 .00015 0.2450960628 6.120049351𝑥10−4

2 0.02 17.0 0.017 40 .00043 0.6932363522 6.202790702𝑥10−4

3 0.03 15.0 0.015 19 .00079 1.273556501 6.203101313𝑥10−4

4 0.04 18.0 0.018 15 .0012 1.960768502 6.120049351𝑥10−5

5 0.05 15.25 0.01525 9 .00169 2.740257287 6.167304099𝑥10−5

B = 83 mm P = 88 mm

𝑸𝒂
𝑪𝒅 =
𝑸𝒕

Table 2. Comparison of coefficient of discharge.

Coefficient of
Coefficient of
No. of discharge, 𝑪𝒅, Percentage of
discharge, 𝑪𝒅,
Trials from Bazin’s difference
from experiment
formula
1 6.120049351𝑥10−4 1.057000008 106%
2 6.202790702𝑥10−4 0.8320000236 83%
3 6.203101313𝑥10−4 0.7570000484 77%
4 6.120049351𝑥10−5 0.7195000817 72%
5 6.167304099𝑥10−5 0.6970001236 70%
 Table 3. Comparison of discharge.

Actual discharge,
Actual discharge,
𝑸𝒂
No. of 𝑸𝒂 Percentage of
from Francis
Trials from experiment difference
formula
(m3/s)
(m3/s)
15.23%
1 0.00015 0.1524460776
2 0.00043 0.4311722307 43.07%
3 0.00079 0.7920948793 79.13%
4 0.0012 1.219480457 121.83%
5 0.00169 1.704324678 170.26%

V. Computations
VI. Graphs
VII. The apparatus used in the experiment.

Hydraulic Flume Hydraulic Flume

Volumetric Tank Weighing Scale

Stopwatch Vernier Caliper

 Rectangular Weir Meter stick

VIII. Question for further discussion

1. Is there a significant difference between the discharge coefficient derived from

the experiment with that of coefficient of discharge from Bazin’s formula?
Discuss the possible reason for such discrepancy.
- Yes, there is a significant difference between the discharge coefficient from
the experiment and from the Bazin’s formula because the formula from the
experiment requires the value of B (width of weir) while in Bazin’s it
requires the value of P (height of sill). As I observe from the answers that
were computed the coefficient of discharge comes from higher answer to
lower while the discharge coefficient which was derived from Francis
formula was from lower decimals to higher value.

2. A rectangular sharp-crested weir with end contractions is 1.5 m long. How high
should it be placed in a channel to maintain an upstream depth of 2.25 m for
0.45 m3/s flow? Use Francis formula.
 3. Solve problem no. 2, using the general weir formula and the average
experimental coefficient of discharge, Cd.

IX. Conclusion
- A rectangular weir may be a better fit with or without contractions for
applications where the flow of water is relatively constant and the channel
width is restricted. Rectangular notch or weir are indeed a very useful
hydraulic tool for a reason that it allows the users to control the weight,
the height, the velocity and most importantly they are very useful in
calculating discharges.