HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING
(CIV 3201)
OPEN CHANNEL FLOW -
DRAINAGE
UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
DEFINITIONS
• Drainage facilities should adequately provide for the flow of
water away from a surface to properly designed channels.
• Two sources of water for drainage:
• Surface – surface drainage (FOCUS)
• Groundwater – subsurface drainage
SURFACE DRAINAGE
• Encompasses all means by which water is removed
from the surface under consideration.
• Important to application such as farmlands.
HYDROLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• Encompasses water in the atmosphere, surface and subsurface.
• Concerned with all forms of precipitation but refers to all as rainfall.
• 3 properties of the precipitants considered:
1. Intensity – rate of fall (mm/hr or in/hr)
2. Duration – length of time
3. Frequency – probable number of years
HYDROLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• Encompasses water in the atmosphere, surface and subsurface.
• Concerned with all forms of precipitation but refers to all as rainfall.
• 3 properties of the precipitants considered:
1. Intensity – rate of fall (mm/hr or in/hr)
2. Duration – length of time
3. Frequency – probable number of years
HYDROLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• 3 properties based on laws of probability, e.g. a “50-year” channel .
• What does that mean?:
• A 50-year channel means that the probability is 1 in 50 that the structure
will flow full in one year.
• What that does NOT mean?:
• A 50-year channel will flow full in once in 50 years.
HYDROLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• Rainfall intensity for a given return period and duration can
be obtained from rainfall-intensity curves.
• Drainage facilities should be designed for very rare storms
to reduce the chance of overflowing to a minimum.
• Storm frequencies are referred to as return periods.
RAINFALL INTENSITY CURVES
FHWA, 1981
HYDROLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• 3 variables considered for surface runoff:
1. Drainage area – area of land to be drained
2. Runoff coefficient – ratio of runoff to rainfall for area
3. Time of concentration – time for runoff to flow between the most
distant point and a point of interest.
Drainage Area
• Determined from topographic maps.
Runoff Coefficient
Formula:
VALUES OF RUNOFF COEFFICIENTS
AASHTO, 1991
VALUES OF RUNOFF COEFFICIENTS
AASHTO, 2001
Time of Concentration
Formula:
Average
Velocity
An average slope and
watercourse classification
needs to be provided to use
the graph.
FHWA, 1984
RUNOFF DETERMINATION
• Equation:
CHANNEL DESIGN
• Manning’s Equation:
CHANNEL
DESIGN
• Velocities:
US DoT, 1981
CHANNEL
DESIGN
• Velocities:
US DoC, 1974
CHANNEL
DESIGN
• Velocities:
US DoC, 1974
CHANNEL
DESIGN
• Manning’s n:
US DoT, 1980
CHANNEL
DESIGN
• Manning’s n:
US DoT, 1980
CHANNEL
DESIGN
• Manning’s n:
US DoT, 1980
EXAMPLE
A175-acre urban drainage area consists of three different watershed areas as follows.
• Apartment dwelling areas 50%
• Parks 30%
• Playgrounds 20%
If the time of concentration for the drainage area is 1.5 hr, determine the runoff rate for a storm of 100-yr
frequency. Assume that the rainfall-intensity curves in the provided Figure are applicable to this drainage area.
Determine a suitable cross section for a channel to carry an estimated runoff if the slope of the channel is 1%
and Manning’s roughness coefficient, n, is 0.015. Assume a 6ft width.
END
