UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING SCIENCES

HYDRAULICS ENGINEERING 3B
Assignment - 1 Submission: 17 Aug. 2018 before 13:00

1) (a) Discuss the factors affecting the precipitation of South Africa.

(b) Explain the precipitation formation mechanisms and types in South Africa. Give examples for
each type of precipitation common in South Africa.
2) At certain climatic station, air pressure is measured as 110 KPa, relative humidity is 68% and the
actual vapour pressure is 0.901 KPa. The air is now lifted convectively through a height of 1200 m.
Determine:
(a) Dew point temperature
(b) Saturated vapour pressures
(c) Temperature of the air before lifting (°C)?
(c) Air density (kg/m3) and specific humidity
(d) Will it be likely that it will rain?

3) Given: Data in the following table

Time (min) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Cum. Precipitation 0 1.4 11.2 18.0 25.0 42.5 53.0 55.0 58.0
(mm)

Required:
a) Maximum precipitation depth and maximum intensities for durations of 0, 20, 40, 60, and 80 mins.
b) Draw: (i) precipitation hyetograph, (ii) Intensity-Duration Curve

4) Given: Catchment area shown (Fig. 1) with the indicated point precipitation stations

. P1
120 km
Prec. Coordinates
. P2 Stations (cm) (km, km)
P1 10 (90, 150)
. P3 P2 40 (60, 110)
P3 30 (80, 90)
P4 20 (40, 60)
P5 70 (80, 50)
. P4

. P5

20 km Fig. 1 (Question 4)

0 km 40 100 120 km
20 km
Determine aerial precipitation for the catchment using:
a) Arithemetic mean method
b) Thiessen Polygon Method
c) Isohyetal Method
(Hint: Use mm paper with 1 square on mm paper corresponds to 1 km * 1 km = 1 km2)
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5) Given the 5 year return period MAP for three regions as shown in table below.
Region Durban Pretoria Cape Town
MAP (mm/yr) 420 250 360

Produce a detailed graph of storm intensity vs duration for time intervals of 0.1 to 0.5 hr in 0.1 increments.

6) Given: A Map coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) for five positions.

Points 1 2 3 4
Deg min sec Deg min sec Deg min sec Deg min sec
Latitude (S) 28 32 55 27 03 35 25 35 45 23 08 45
Longitude (E) 20 14 40 23 09 45 27 35 15 29 48 08

Determine the specific map ID for the indicated five points (in terms of 1:50 000 and 1: 10 000 scales). Also indicate the local
name for the indicated points. Also show the location of each five points on map with coordinates.

7) Given: Nwanedi Dam Site (Fig. 2). The contour intervals on the map are at 20 m, with the contours at every
100 m in bold.

Determine:
a) The scale of the map if the linear distance between the small peninsula/island to the Phandangoma
hill is 6.0 km.
b) The height difference between the dam walls of the Nwanedi Dam and Tsaande village.
c) Area of the catchment (use triangulation)
d) The longest watercourse
e) Slope using: (i) equal area method, (ii) 1085 method
f) design precipitation (point and aerial) and precipitation intensity

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Fig. 2 (Question 7)