Workshop 1: Subcritical Profile Analysis

Exercise Overview

In this exercise you will be developing and operating a HEC-RAS project that has a
subcritical water surface profile. At the end of the exercise you will answer a series of
questions regarding the output of the project.

Exercise Prerequisites

• A working understanding of the fundamentals of hydraulic modeling.

• Basic familiarity with hydrologic modeling.
• Competence with keyboard and mouse

Exercise Objectives

After completing this exercise, you will be able to:

• Enter cross-section geometry and roughness data

• Use cross-section bulk editing tools
• Use the cross section interpolation tool
• Develop and operate a steady, subcritical flow HEC-RAS model

Scenario for Project

A developer wants to construct some apartment buildings on a piece of property that has
a stream running through it. Before the lending institution will approve the loan for the
development, they want to insure that the development shows no propensity for flooding
during a 100-year storm event. As the project hydraulic engineer, perform a hydraulic
analysis of the natural channel using the data provided below. You may assume that all
appropriate regulating agencies have been contacted and have given preliminary approval
to proceed with the project.
To gain approval of the lending institution, you must offer guidance to the developer by
indicating the lowest acceptable finished floor elevation for the proposed apartments. The
developer wishes to place the buildings in the vicinity of stream Cross-Section 3.

After you complete the analysis, answer the questions at the end of the exercise problem.

HEC-RAS DATA

1. Hydrology Data

A hydrologic analysis of the watershed drained by the stream indicates that:

• 100-year discharge at Section 5 = 225 cfs and increases to 250 cfs at Section 4.
• Recorded high-water marks have been used to extrapolate the starting water
surface elevation at Section 1 for a 100-year flood discharge. The assumed
starting water surface elevation at this section is 205.44 ft.

2. Geometry Data

A field survey of the proposed development has produced the cross-sectional geometry
shown in tabular and graphical formats on the following pages. A field inspection of the
channel indicates that the Manning roughness (n) values are 0.1 for the overbank areas of
Cross-Sections 1 and 2 and the right overbank areas of all five sections. Left overbank n
values are 0.1 and 0.065 for Sections 3 through 5. Manning’s n for the channel is 0.050
for all five sections.

Cross-Section 5 is a duplicate of Section 4, except that Section 5 is 0.9 ft higher in

elevation than Section 4 and the entire cross section width, including the channel, is 75%
of Section 4.
Note: The  left  and  right  bank  stations  are  indicated  in  the  following  
tables  by  the  shaded  boxes.  
After you have coded and run the HEC-RAS program for the five cross sections and
answered questions 1-6, use the Cross Section Interpolation Tool to insert additional
cross sections to the entire reach of stream, with a maximum interval of 100 ft. Run the
program and save the output to a different plan name. You can compare the results with
and without the interpolation at any cross section by selecting and displaying both plans
(with and without interpolated sections) using Standard Table 1 or 2.
Exercise Review

Now that you have completed this exercise, let’s measure what you have learned.

Questions

1. What must the elevation of the bottom floor of the apartments be to prevent flooding?
2. What is the main channel velocity at Section 3?
3. Which of the four sections exhibits the highest head loss due to friction? (Use
Standard Table 2)
4. Why does this section have the highest head loss?
5. What is meant by "Divided flow computed at this cross section” at Section 2?
6. Does this seem correct for Section 2?
7. In which of the four channel sections is the water the deepest?
8. Does the use of the cross section interpolation significantly improve the calculated
water surface elevation at Section 5? (Hint: use the plan comparison feature to
evaluate elevations at any selected section). Why do you think this is so?
9. Can you run this analysis by using supercritical/mixed flow regime? Why?