Engineering Hydrology

Forms of Precipitation:

1. Drizzel Fine Sprinkle

2. Rain drops are > 0.5 mm in size
3. Glaze rain coated with ice
4. Sleet drops are frozen
5. Hail ice > 5 mm, irregular lumps
6. Dew condensation of vapour on ground.

* Main daily temperature

- Arithmetic mean of maximum and minimum temperatures
recorded at that day.
* Mean monthly temp.
- Arithmetic average of mean daily temperatures of all days in the
month
* Normal daily temperature
- It is the same as normal annual temperature
- It is the average of daily mean temperatures for a given date
computed for specific 30 years period.
* Laps rate
- It is the decrease of temperature with the elevation in the
troposphere at an average of 6.5 Cْ / km
* Humidity
- It is the amount of vapour in air. It is an indication of water in air,
which depends on air temperature. Air capacity of vapour increases
with increasing air temperature.
* Vapour pressure is measured as partial pressure in bar or millibare =
1
1000 Bar.
 or in mm Hg
1 mm Hg = 1.33 milli bar
1 Bar = 105N / m2
1 mm bar = 100 N / m2

* Saturation (es)
Saturation deficit = es – e
es : saturation of certain temperature
e: actual vapour pressure .
* Condensation occurs if vapour pressure > es
e
* Relative humidity = H = es * 100 %

* Dew point :
It the temperature at which the saturation vapour pressure is equal to
the existing vapour pressure .
It is possible to mesure the actual vapour pressure as
( ew – e ) = Y ( t - t s )

where
ew : vapour pressure at tw
e : actual vapour pressure .
tw : temperature of wet thermometer
t: temperature of dry thermometer
Y: device constant
= 0.485 if e in mm Hg
= 0.66 if e in mm bar
The atmosphere

The permanent constituents of atmosphere by volume are:

a- Nitrogen 78%
b- Oxygen 21%
c- inert gases 1%

The variable constituents of the atmosphere may be in solid, gas and

liquid forms.
Water is the most important and can comprise as much as 4% of the
atmosphere and exists in all the three forms.

1. Ozone
Most oxygen in the atmosphere is present in the form of O2 (diatomic)
and a small portion is present in the form of O3 (triatomic), which is
called Ozone.
Ozone is found at high attitudes (20 – 70 km) above the earth’s surface
What is the important of Ozone?
Ozone prevents harmful ultra violet radiation from reaching down the
biological life on earth surface.

2. Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Present in atmosphere as variable quantity.

It is produced by aminal world, burning of fuels, volcanic actions and
consumed by the vegetable world, also CO2 is absorbed by ocean
surfaces so only small amounts remains in the air.
Carbon dioxide is important for the water budget if the atmosphere,
but how?
 Carbon dioxide and water vapor absorbs the long wave radiation
reflected from the earth to the atmosphere and causes the green house
phenomenon.
3. Water Vapor
The most important of the atmosphere. The amount of water vapor in
the air is indirectly expressed through water is called vapor pressure or
relative humidity.
Vapor pressure is the partial pressure exerted by water vapor.

Moist air dry air at

at 30 Cْ 30 Cْ

P1 P2

The moist air has a pressure of P1 in the vessile at 30 Cْ , if the vapor is

removed keeping the same temperature, the pressure will be P2 which is
less than P1 because it is reduced by the amount of the vapor pressure.

So the pressure of the vapor

= P2 – p1 = e (e is vapor pressure)

e is expressed in milli bar (mb) or mm Hg

1 mb = 100 N / M2 (100 Pa)
1 mm Hg = 1.33 mb

The mean sea level atmospheric pressure at 15 Cْ is 1013 mb.

The maximum water vapor that can be held by the air is controlled by air
temperature.
Air is said to be saturated if it holds the maximum vapor at a certain
temperature. The pressure exerted by saturated air is called saturated
vapor pressure and is denoted by (es).

Saturation vapor pressure es can be calculated at any given temperature

by using the following equation.

17.27 T
es = 6.11 exp ( 234.3 + T )

Where:

es : in mbar
T: Temperature in Cْ

Example:
Find the saturation vapor pressure at 20 Cْ

17.27 * 20
es = 6.11 exp ( 234.3 + 20 )

345.4
= 6.11 exp ( 257.3 )
= 6.11 * 3.828
= 23.39 mb

If the actual vapor pressure e is equal to 18 mb then the relative humidity

is:
185
h = 34.39 * 100 = 76.9 %

The state of any gas is controlled by the equation:

PV: RT
P: pressure
V: Volume
R: Gas constant = 287 N-m / kg – K
T: temperature in Kelvin (273 = 0 Cْ )

The specific volume V is equal ??? where P is the density of air,

1
So P * = RT
P

P= P
RT

The gas constant for water vapor is 1.6 times the gas constant, so P for the
vapour is:

e
PV = ----- 1
1.6 RT

And the density of the dry air is:

(P–e)
Pd = ----- 2
RT
By summing the above 1 + 2 we can’t get the density of air with its
moisture as:

P e
Pm = RT ( 1 – 0.375 P )
From which we can note that the density of wet air is less than the density
of dry air.
From the figure
1 and 2
Increasing the vapor pressure by adding vapor to air while the
temperature is constant to reach Ps (T, es) where the air becomes
saturated: further addition of vapor will cause condensation.

1 and 3
Air is cooled without changing its pressure to reach Ps (Td, e), here the air
becomes sutured and further decreasing of temperature will cause
condensation.
The temperature Td is called the dew point.

1 and 4
Vapor is added to air without controlling temperature. By increasing
vapor content, air temperature will decrease (Tw). This temperature is
called the wet bulb temperature, which means the temperature to which
the original air can be cooled by increasing its vapor content. This
principle is used in measuring the relative humidity of air.
In general the different between es and e is called saturation deficit.
So, saturation deficit = (es – e)

Example:
Determine the density in kilograms per cubic meter of:
a. dry air at 30 Cْ and pressure of 900 mb

b. moist air with relative humidity of 70 % at 30 Cْ and 900 mb.

a. 900 mb = 900 * 100 = 9 * 104 N / m2

R = 287 N – m / kg – K
T = 30 + 273 = 303 K
 P 9 * 10 4
Pd = RTk = 287 * 303 ( p in n/m2)

= 1.035 Kg/m3

b- Relative humidity = h
e
.7 = es * 100

e = .7es

17.27 Tc
es = 6.11 exp ( ) ( Tin co )
234.3 + Tc
= 42.43 mb
e = 0.7 * 42.43
= 2907 mb

P e
Pm = RT ( 1 – 0.375 P )

29.7
= 1.035 ( 1 – 0.375 * )
900
= 1.022 kg / m3

Example:
For an atmosphere with relative humidity of 80 % and temperature of 30
Cْ determine the following:

1. The saturation vapor pressure

2. The actual vapor pressure
3. Saturation deficit
4. dew point

Solution
27.3 + Tc
237.2 * Tc
1. es = 6.11 exp
= 42.4 mbar
e
2. h = 80 % es = .8
e = .8 * es
= 33.94 mb

actual pressure = 33.94 mbar

3. Saturation deficit = (es – e)

= (42.4 – 33.9)
= 48.5 m bar

4. The temperature at which e = es = 33.9 is calculated from the es, T

formula = 26 Cْ (homework)

Wind velocity
Air in motion is called wind.
Wind velocity is measured by anemometer.
Wind velocity can be calculated at any height using the formula

V Z
= ( )
Vo Zo

Where:
Vo – the observed velocity at Zo
V = the velocity at a height Z

Example:
If a wind velocity was estimated to be 5 m / second at 10 m above
ground, what will be the wind velocity at 2 m above the ground?

Solution:
Vo = 5 m / sec

Zo = 10 m
Z=2M
V=?

V 2
5 = ( 10 ) .15

V = 78 * 5 = 3.9 m / sec

* Rain gauges
Are used to measure rain fall. They must be distributed on the following
basis:
1. Catchment area
2. dominant storms
3. type of dominant rain type (rain or snow)
4. topography
5. canopy (trees height, density…)

* Types of measuring gauges:

a. manual
b. automatic

* Number of measuring gauges (N)

N=( Cv )2
ε
N: number of stations
Cv : annual variation coefficient
Cv :

ε = 10%

Example:

A catchment area has six rain gauges stations.

In a year, the annual rainfall recorded by the gauges are as follow:

Station A B C D E F
Rainfall cm: 82.6 102.9 180.3 110.3 98.8 136.7

For a 10 % error in the estimation of rainfall, calculate the optimum

number of stations in the catchment
m=6
P = 118.6
m – 1 = 35.04
ε = 10
100 * 35.04
Cv :
118.6

29.54 2
N= ( 10 ) 8.7, say g stations

Filling in missing record

1. estimation from isohyetal maps
 2. Arthmatic average method
3. Normal ratio method
In this method, if we have 3 stations:
Na NB Nc surrounding Nx station
Nx is missed data
P is annual precipitation for Na NB Nc

Nx PA PB PC
Px = 3( + + )
Na NB NC

Or Px = PA + PB + Pc it PA , PB , Pc
3

Varied not more than 10 %

Example:
A B C D

Precipitation : 80.97 67.59 76.28 92.01

cm

In 2007: 91.11 72.23 79.89 ?

92.01 91.11 72.23 79.89

PD = ( + + ) = 99.4 cm
3 80.97 67.59 76.28

17.27 T
es = 6.11 exp . ( 237.3 + T ) …(2.1)
where es is in millibars and T is in oC .

Table 2.1. Variation of Saturation Vapour pressure es with Temperature T

T es T es T es T es T es
o o o o o
in C in mb in C in mb in C in mb in C in mb in C in mb
0 6.1078 10 12.272 20 23.373 30 42.430 40 73.777
1 6.5662 11 13.119 21 24.861 31 44.927 41 77.802
2 7.0457 12 14.017 22 26.430 32 47.551 42 82.015
3 7.5753 13 14.969 23 28.086 33 50.307 43 86.423
4 8.1294 14 15.977 24 29.831 34 53.200 44 91.034
5 8.7192 15 17.044 25 31.671 35 56.236 45 95.855
6 9.3465 16 18.173 26 33.608 36 59.422 46 100.89
7 10.013 17 19.367 27 35.649 37 62.762 47 106.16
8 10.722 18 20.630 28 37.796 38 66.264 48 111.66
9 11.474 19 21.964 29 40.055 39 69.934 49 117.40

Another measure of water vapour is the relative humidity which is

defined as the ratio of the actual vapour pressure to the saturation vapour
pressure corresponding to the same temperature. Relative humidity is
denoted by h and is usually expressed as percentage. Thus

100e
h = es …(2.2)