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11 views2 pages

Tutorials Rev

Uploaded by

abonga petse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 4 – Infiltration: Optional questions

QUESTION 1
The hourly rainfall of a storm over a 20 km2 catchment is provided below. The average runoff measured
at a gauging station along the river draining the catchment was 5.1 m3/s and lasted for 24 hours.
Determine the phi index for the catchment. Ans = 5.3 mm/h

Time (h) 1 2 3 4 5
Storm (mm) 4 8 16 14 5

Procedure to follow
a) Estimate runoff volume, R (mm) = (Qt)/A
b) Assume that all the rainfall values contribute to surface runoff
c) Calculate phi-index = [Total rainfall (mm) – Runoff (mm)]/Total storm duration
d) Compare phi-index value with each of rainfall values to establish if conditions are met; i.e. Ф value
must be more than each rainfall value else, discard particular rainfall value that is equal or less than Ф.
e) Repeat steps b) to d) in subsequent iterations until condition is met for all remaining rainfall values.

QUESTION 2
The table below shows the hourly rainfall of three storms that gave rise to runoff equivalents of 40, 30
and 16 mm respectively. Determine the phi index for the catchment.
Time(h) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Storm 1 (mm) 4 17 19 19 15 5 2 Ф1=?
Storm 2 (mm) 5 17 23 12 10 3 0 Ф2=?
Storm 3 (mm) 0 4 12 15 15 5 1 Ф3=?
Ф=(Ф1+Ф2+Ф3)/3
QUESTION 3
Given the following information:
f0 = 7.2 cm hr-1; fc = 0.2 cm hr-1; k = 0.75 hr-1
Calculate the infiltration rate and the total depth of infiltrated water after 3 hours of hard rain (i.e. rainfall
rate is greater than the infiltration rate throughout the rain).

Solution:
Infiltration rate:
f  f c + ( f 0 - f c ) e-kt  0.2  7e .75(3)  0.94cm hr 1
Total depth of infiltrated water:
( f0- fc) 7
F = f ct + [1 - e-kt ]  0.2(3)  [1  e .75(3) ]  8.95 cm
k 0.75
Limits to Horton's Theory
Horton's equation and integral assume that the rainfall intensity is greater than the infiltration rate
throughout the rain (or the ground is saturated). If at any time the rainfall intensity is slower than the
infiltration rate (or the ground is not saturated), the ground will lose some water to lower levels, and
Horton's theory must be modified.
QUESTION 4
The initial infiltration capacity f0 of a watershed is estimated as 25 mm/hr and the time constant is
taken to be 0.3 hr-1. The equilibrium capacity fc is 6 mm/hr. Use the Horton’s equation to compute the
total infiltration and runoff over the 5 hours if the following rainfall occurred. Ans: 65 mm; 26 mm

Time (hour) 1 2 3 4 5
Rainfall (mm) 12 25 11 28 15
SOLUTION

fc (mm/h) = 6; fo (mm/h) = 25; k (hr-1) = 0.3


−0.3𝑡
f (t )  f c  ( f o  f c )e kt =𝑓(𝑡) = 6 + (25 − 6)𝑒
−0.3𝑡
Time Rainfall, P Horton’s 𝑓(𝑡) = 6 + (25 − 6)𝑒 Accumulated Infiltration, Runoff =P-F
(t) (hr) (mm) (mm/h) F (mm) (mm)
0 0 f(0) = 6+(25-6)e(-0.3*0) = 25.0 0.0 0
1 12 f(1) = 6+(25-6)e(-0.3*1) = 20.1 1*12 = 12 0
2 25 f(2) = 6+(25-6)e(-0.3*2) = 16.4 1*{(20.1+16.4)/2}= 18.3 6.7
3 11 f(3) = 6+(25-6)e(-0.3*3) = 13.7 1*11 = 11 0
4 28 f(4) = 6+(25-6)e(-0.3*4) = 11.7 1*{(13.7+11.7)/2} = 12.7 15.3
5 15 f(5) = 6+(25-6)e(-0.3*5) = 10.2 1*{(11.7+10.2)/2} = 11 4
Totals = 65.0 26.0
Plot a graph: column 1 against columns 2 & 3 as below:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
30 30.0
Horton’s infiltration curve
Hyetograph
25 25.0
Rainfall & Infiltration rate (mm/h)

20 20.1 20.0

16.4
15 13.7 15.0
11.7
10 10.2 10.0

5 5.0

0 0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (h)

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