Unit Hydrograph
Unit Hydrograph
Unit Hydrograph
2) Hydrograph: Flood hydrographs and its components, Base flow & Base flow
separation, S-Curve technique, unit hydrograph, synthetic hydrograph. Instantaneous
Unit hydrograph.
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HYDROGRAPH:-
1) A plot of the discharge in stream against time chronologically.
2) Depending upon unit of time involved:
1) Annual hydrograph
2) Monthly hydrograph
3) Seasonal hydrograph
4) Flood hydrograph or storm hydrograph or hydrograph: it shows stream
flow due to storm over catchment. It is used flooding characteristics of
stream.
Above Hydrograph 1,2,3 are called long term hydrograph and are used for
longed term studies like calculating the surface potential of stream, reservoir
studies, drought studies.
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HYDROGRAPH
storm of Duration D
Precipitation
P
tl
tp peak flow
Discharge
Q baseflow
new baseflow
w/o rainfall
DTEL 6
Watershed
Urbanization
Factors affecting Hydrograph:
1) Size
2) Shape
3) Slope
4) Drainage density
5) Land use or vegetation
6) Rainfall intensity
7) Rainfall duration
8) Direction of storm movement
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Hydrograph:
1) Hydrograph is a graphical variation of discharge against time.
2) It is a response of a given catchment to a rainfall input.
3) The discharge noted in hydrograph is the combined effect of surface runoff,
interflow & base flow.
4) If two storms occurs in a catchment such that the 2nd one doesn’t start before
the direct runoff due to 1st one has ceased, we get a singled peaked
hydrograph.
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Hydrograph:
1) If however, the second storm start before the direct runoff due to 1st storm has
ceased, (complex storm) then multipeak hydrograph are obtained.
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1) A1ABCDEE1 is called hydrograph due to isolated storm I1.
2) AB is rising limb or concentration curve.
3) BCD is crest curve.
4) DE is falling curve or recession curve.
5) C is point of crest or peak.
6) E is end of direct runoff.
7) EA’ is the hydrograph in the period of ground water recession.
8) A’ is beginning of direct runoff due to 2nd storm.
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1) T is base period of 1st storm hydrograph.
2) A1AEE1 is the base flow contribution to total discharge.
3) ABCDE direct runoff contribution to total discharge.
4) G1 is the centre of mass of rainfall.
5) G2 is the centre of mass of hydrograph.
6) TL = lag time.
7) tpk = time of peak from starting point A
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Hydrograph Separation:
1) In hydrological analysis it is necessary to obtain Direct Runoff Hydrograph
(DRH) from Total Storm Hydrograph (TSH).
2) To separate DRH from TSH, various methods are available.
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1) The flood data and base flow in a storm are estimated for a storm in a
catchment area of 600 km2. calculate the effective rainfall.
Time in Days 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Ordinates of DRH after the separation of the base flow are:
Time in Days 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Ordinates of DRH after the separation of the base flow are:
Time in Days 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Interflow is small, so direct runoff is equal to surface runoff & therefore they are
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used synonymously.
Effective Rainfall Hyetograph:-
1) When initial losses and filtration losses are subtracted from the rainfall
hyetograph, we get Effective Rainfall Hyetograph (ERH).
2) It is also known as Hyetograph of rainfall excess.
3) Direct Runoff Hydrograph (DRH) is the result of Effective Rainfall
Hyetograph (ERH).
4) Area under ERH x Catchment area = Runoff Volume = Area under direct DRH
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2) A storm over catchment of area 5 km2 had a duration of 14 hours. If the Φ
index for the catchment is 0.4 cm/hr, determine the effective rainfall
hyetograph and the volume of direct runoff from the catchment due to the
storm. The mass curve of rainfall of the storm are as below.
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Hour Accumulated Time Depth of Φ x (time ER, Intensity
rainfall, cm interval, rainfall, interval) cm of ER,
hour cm cm/hr
0 0 - - - - -
2 0.6 2 0.6 0.8 0 0
4 2.8 2 2.2 0.8 1.4 0.7
6 5.2 2 2.4 0.8 1.6 0.8
8 6.7 2 1.5 0.8 0.7 0.35
10 7.5 2 0.8 0.8 0 0
12 9.2 2 1.7 0.8 0.9 0.45
14 9.6 2 0.4 0.8 0 0
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Unit Hydrograph:
1) The D-hr Unit Hydrograph, D should not be more than any of the following:
1) Time of concentration
2) Lag time
3) Period of rise
2) Volume of water contained inside the unit hydrograph (ie area of unit of
hydrograph) is equal to (1cm x catchment area)
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Unit Hydrograph:
Assume that a 6-hour unit hydrograph(UH) of a catchment has been derived,
whose ordinates are given in the following table and a corresponding
graphical representation is shown in Figure.
Time, 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72 78 84
Hr
Discharge, 0 5 15 50 120 201 173 130 97 66 40 21 9 3.5 2
m3/s
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Unit Hydrograph:
2) Assume further that the effective rainfall hyetograph(ERH) for a given storm
on the region has been given as in the following table.
Time, Hrs 0 6 12 18
Effective rainfall, cm 0 2 4 3
3) This means that in in the first 6 hours, 2cm excess rainfall has been recorded,
4cm in the next 6 hour & 3cm in the next.
4) Direct runoff hydrograph can then be calculated by the three separate
hydrograph for three excess rainfalls by multiplying the ordinates of the 6hr-
unit hydrograph by corresponding rainfall amounts.
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Sample calculation for the example solved graphically is given table
Time, UH Direct runoff Direct runoff due Direct runoff due Direct runoff
Hrs Ordinates, due to 2cm to 4cm excess to 3cm excess hydrograph,
m3/s excess rainfall rainfall in second rainfall in third m3/s
in first 6hrs 6hrs 6hrs
0 0 0 0 0 0
6 5 10 0 0 10
12 15 30 20 0 50
18 50 100 60 15 175
24 120 240 200 45 485
30 201 402 480 150 1032
36 173 346 804 360 1510
42 130 260 692 603 1555
48 97 194 520 519 1233
54 66 132 388 390 910
60 40 80 264 291 635
66 21 42 160 198 400
72 9 18 84 120 222
78 3.5 7 36 63 106
84 2 4 14 27 45
90 0 8 10.5 18.5
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96 0 0 6 6
3) The ordinates of 6 hr unit hydrograph of a catchment is given below:
Time, 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 69
Hr
Ordinates 0 25 50 85 125 160 185 160 110 60 36 25 16 8 0
of 6 hr UH
Derive the flood hydrograph in the catchment due to the storm given below:
The storm loss rate for the catchment is estimated 0.25 cm/hr. The base flow
can be assumed to be 15 m3/s at the beginning and increasing by 2.0 m3/s
for every 12 hours till the end of the direct runoff hydrograph.
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Time interval of storm (hr) 6 12 18
Accumulated Rainfall 3.5 11 16.5
Rainfall 3.5 7.5 5.5
Loss @ 0.25cm/Hr for 6 Hrs 1.5 1.5 1.5
Effective Rainfall, cm 2 6 4
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Time, Ordinates DRH due DRH due to DRH due to Ordinates of Base Flow, Ordinates of
Hr of UH to 2cm ER 6cm ER 4cm ER Final DRH m3/s Flood
Hydrograph,
m3/s
A B C =(B x 2) D = (B x 6) E = (Bx4) F=(C+D+E) G H=(G+F)
0 0 0 0 0 0 15 15
3 25 50 0 0 50 15 65
6 50 100 0 0 100 15 115
9 85 170 150 0 320 15 335
12 125 250 300 0 550 17 567
15 160 320 510 100 930 17 947
18 185 370 750 200 1320 17 1337
21 172.5 345 960 340 1645 17 1662
24 160 320 1110 500 1930 19 1949
27 135 270 1035 640 1945 19 1694
30 110 220 960 740 1920 19 1939
36 60 120 660 640 1420 21 1441
42 36 72 360 440 872 21 893
48 25 50 216 240 506 23 529
54 16 32 150 144 326 23 349
60 8 16 96 100 212 25 237
66 0 0 48 64 112 25 137
69 0 32 32 27 59
72 0 0 27 27
75
78
81
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Derivation Unit Hydrograph from Flood Hydrograph of Isolated
Storm:
4) The following are the ordinates of the flood hydrograph from a catchment
area of 780 km2 due to 6 hr storm. Derive the 6 hr unit hydrograph of the
basin.
Time, 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72 78
Hr
Discharge, 40 64 215 360 405 350 270 205 145 100 70 50 40
m3/s
0 0
2 0.3
4 1.7
6 2.6
8 5.4
10 4
12 2.6
14 1.1
16 0.6
18 0
7) Determine the ordinates of unit hydrograph from flood hydrograph.
Neglect base flow. Area= 405 hectare.
3 3
Time (Hours) Ordinates of 4-hr U.H. (m /s) Ordinates of 2-hr U.H. (m /s)
A B A=B*(4/2)
0 0 0
2 12.5 25
4 62.5 125
6 130 260
8 175 350
10 180 360
12 140 280
14 90 180
16 50 100
18 35 70
20 13 26
22 3 6
24 0 0
Q.12 The ordinates of S-Curve Hydrograph are given below. Determine the ordinates of 3-hr
UH. Effective rainfall is 1 cm/hr.
Ordinates of S-
Time Ordinates of S- 3
3 Curve (m /s) lagged Difference Ordinates of 3-hr U.H. (m3/s)
(Hours) Curve (m /s)
by 3-hr D E = D x (1/3)
A B
C
0 0 0 0.00
1 55 55 18.33
2 141 141 47.00
3 251 0 251 83.67
4 344 55 289 96.33
5 413 141 272 90.67
6 463 251 212 70.67
7 501 344 157 52.33
8 523 413 110 36.67
9 538 463 75 25.00
10 546 501 45 15.00
Q.13 The ordinates of 6-hr UH are given below. Determine the ordinates of 4-hr UH using
S-Curve technique and plot the same.
Time Ordinates of S-Curve S- S-Curve S-Curve Difference Ordinates
(Hours 6-hr U.H. addition Curve ordinates ordinates of 4-hr
3 3
) (m3/s) ordinat (m /s) 4- (m /s) U.H.
3
es hr lagged by (m /s)
3
(m /s) Time duration 4-hr
6=4*(
1 2 3 4=2+3 5 4/6) 7 8=6-7 9=8*(6/4)
0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0
6 40 0 40 4 26.67 0.00 26.67 40
12 90 40 130 8 86.67 26.67 60.00 90
18 100 130 230 12 153.33 86.67 66.67 100
24 130 230 360 16 240.00 153.33 86.67 130
30 80 360 440 20 293.33 240.00 53.33 80
36 70 440 510 24 340.00 293.33 46.67 70
42 50 510 560 28 373.33 340.00 33.33 50
48 30 560 590 32 393.33 373.33 20.00 30
54 10 590 600 36 400.00 393.33 6.67 10
600 600 40 400.00 400.00 0.00 0
44 0.00 400.00 -400.00 -600