Water Engineering WEG711S

Lecture, week 10a

Open channel flow

Lecturer: Dr G C Cloete
Email address:
Office number: E/3/4.227
Chadwick & Morfett
Hydraulics in Civil & Environmental Eng
3rd Ed
Chapter 5, Open channel flow

Open channel
energy gradient
When drawing a cross section through a river,
always draw it facing downstream…..since
international convention refers to the left bank
and right bank when facing the downstream
direction.

LB RB
e.g. section AA is looking in the downstream
direction.

LB RB
LB – left bank
RB – right bank
 LB

Hydraulic radius, R, is area (A) divided by

wetted perimeter (P):

R = A/P
Chezy is used by hydraulic modelers, but
the Mannings equation is more popular and
robust in terms accuracy and simplicity
Reynolds n – value is a dimensionless factor