FREE SURFACE FLOW Prof. Dr. Roland K. Price UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education UNESCO-IRE fy etka Winer EatonFree surface flow (Theory of flood wave propagation) 1 Introduction River floods can be regarded as signficant disturbances om the flow, From onr point of view wwe can identify such © disturbance propagating in the river downstream that is, in the tection of generally a negative bed gradient. The following text is based on Price (1985) We can develop a theory of flood propagation from the Saint Venaat equations for geaduatly varying fow in open channels: Conservation of momentum: 20 , a a ax Conservation of mass: (2 ori etaea, 0 o aa! ® ‘The Saint-Venant equations consist of a number of terms, especially the dynamic equati “This equation can be simplified in certain cirermstances that are particular to floods ima river. ‘Todo this we make a scale analysis on the terms in the dynazaic equation, ‘Suppose we have a (smal) river that has dimensions: B= lOm ss? jose go10tnt rs t= 108s Salzie] sl where B= Top width of the chanel, acceleration duo to gravity, A= cross-sectional area, Q~ discharge, y= depth of flow {4 Interal inflow and time. ‘The superposition of a ‘bar’ above « variable denotes the scale for that variable, ‘With this data compare the magnitudes of the terms in the Saint Venant equations:s= DP /A= 1.75108 = 200 lets [ets o> 57156 ~ 0.9 let Alters dl [Bla ie a4 ~o3n04 25, ~ 2.02107 Ligiey 1.707 It follows that we can write the conservation of momentum equation as OO 8 45,50 o Alar Ox ’ where @ o = @ ee Here « ‘prime? denotes the dimensionless variable after the scate ofthe variable is removed. & isthe ratio of the characteristic surfce gradient (defined relative to the bed gradient) to the toed gradient, and y'is the square of the Fronde number for the flow. © is an event-based number in that it depends on the length scale forthe event, whereas y depends primarily on the nature of the climunel. Generally for rive SeS? ancl therefore the first 10 terme in the riomentusn equation are significantly smaller than tho third term, which is in tur significantly smaller tion sp oF se We seek to exploit this feante by generating an ‘approximation tothe basic equations of order « that is, Of@). For ease of notation the original ‘equations arc used with the introduction of ¢ and 7'to identify the terms of different arder. Also, to avoid unnecessary complications the channel is assumed to have a uniform cross- section and bed gradient. Note that no assumption is made about the shape of the cross section or the bed roughness. An analysis including variations in cross-section and bed sradient along the reach would be similar to that proposed by the Price (1975). ‘We can conclude, in this case, that + the momentum of the flow in the river is governed primarily by the bottom and {tiotion slopes, and is modified by the water surface siope, which is defined relative to ‘the bottom slope of the channel ‘the acceleration and convection of mornentum terms can be ignored the contribution to the momentum ia the main channel fiom tributaries and lateral inflow can also be ignored + the lateral inflow from small tributaries and direct runoff can be significant under ‘snow-melt conditions, bul in general its effect is small ‘+ the tength scale of a flood wave és considerably greater than the lengths of most rivers. If we ignore the inertial terms (the local acceleration and convection of momentum) by assuming thet 7< "7 ta i os or oe] 4 i | eo oa eo " S39 ae an 0 ni Fig 4 Wave speed curves for synthetic channel ‘were routed along the synthetic river using iterative the iterative four point implicit method of Amein (1968) (based on the Priessman (1962} schom:) for the full Saint-Venant equations, and valtes of 2/7, were determined for each flood event. These values were correlated with the average peak’ discharge along the reach, Fig 7.6 also shows the curves for L/Z; as a fanction of Q for the case 22-100 m3/2, T=24 h and J-16 and @‘The results confirm some important festures given by Eq (38). For example, d/L/T,)/d0 is approximately zero where the curve for cy intersects the curves for 1/7. Ako, for sinaller values of and so for smaller values of the curvature atthe peek of the upstream hyérograph, the curve for 1/7, is closer to the curve for cy. Finally, values of cp ealeulated from Bq (28) ‘and using the ‘observed? peak propegation speeds agice well with the known kinematic wave speed for the channel. 1400 1200} Erwood 1000 800 600} Discharge (m3 5!) 400; 200} ~ ol o 3 & 5 6 Fig 5. Typical example of flood modelling using the Variable Parameter Muskingum Cunge method References ‘Cunge, J. (1969) On the subject ofa flood propagation method (Muskingum method) Hyde Res JAHR, 7, pp205-30 Hayami, S (1951) On the propagation of flood waves, Bulletin No 1 Disaster Prevention ‘esearch Institute, Kyoto Univesity, Japan, Dee Forchiheimor, P (3930) Hydraulik 3" Edn, Tucbrer, Leipzig and Beslia Price, RK (1982) A non-linear tieory of flood wave propagation Appl. Math Modelling, 6 7338-42 rice, RK (1973) Flood ronting methods Zor British sivers Rep ITIL, Hydtaulics research, Wallingford, UK March Price, R K (1973) Vasiable paremeter diffusion method for food routing Rep 17115, Hydroulis rscarch, Wallingford UK July Price, RK (1973) Flood routing methods for British rivers, Pree Tast Civ Engrs $5 (12) 3791330 Price, RK (1985) Flood routing. Chap 4 in Developments in Hydraulic Engineering-3, Ed Neves, Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, London and New York, pp!29-73Amin, M (1968) An implicit method for mumerieal ffood routing. Water Res Res 4, (4) ppri9-26 Lighthill and Whitham, G B (1955) On kinematic waves I Proc Roy Sos, London Series Ay 229 pp281-316 ‘Wong, THF and Lauronson, B M (1983) Wave speed-discharge relations in uatural clamuels Wat Res Res 19 (3), pp701-6