Hydrologic Analysis

By Michael J. Mastroluca P.E.

Chapter 3 Objectives

Define the concept of a watershed Discuss quantification of watershed, soil, and channel characteristics Provide and understanding of the importance of watershed characteristics in controlling flood runoff Discuss simplifying assumptions made in characterizing flood runoff Characterize the timing of flood runoff

Watershed Characteristics
Watershed characteristics that affect the hydrologic cycle : (see notes for explanation) each area will be discussed in detail
Size of drainage area Slope, length Land use Soil type Storage and vegetation in channel Channel roughness and cross-sectional properties

What is a Watershed?

Answer

According to the EPA a watershed is an area of land that catches rain and snow and drains or seeps into a marsh, stream, river, lake or groundwater

Delineation of a watershed
1. Hand drawn on a paper topographic map
2. Contour line (Continuous line for the same elevation points) use 3. Requires experience and labor
Outlet point

4. Analogue approach
5. Manual

Example Problems

Chapter 3 handout

Open Channel Flow

1. Uniform flow - Mannings Eqn in a prismatic channel - Q, v, y, A, P, B, S and roughness are all constant 2. Critical flow - Specific Energy Eqn (Froude No.) 3. Non-uniform flow - gradually varied flow (steady flow) - determination of floodplains 4. Unsteady and Non-uniform flow - flood waves

Mannings Equation
Cross-Section
Area
Q A Rh S n
= = = = =

149 . ARh S Q n
3

Wetted Perimeter

Flow Cross-sectional area Hydraulic Radius (area/wetted perimeter) Bed slope Roughness coefficient

Profile

Bed Slo

pe

Roughness

A. A.1. A.2. A.3. A.4. B. B.1. B.2.

Unlined Open Channels Earth, uniform section: Clean, recently completed Clean, after weathering With short grass, few weeds In gravely soil, uniform section, clean Earth, fairly uniform section: No vegetation Grass, some weeds

Mannings n range 0.016 0.018 0.022 0.022 0.022 0.025 0.018 0.020 0.027 0.025 0.025 0.030

Uniform Open Channel Flow

Concrete Channel

Normal depth is function of flow rate, and geometry and slope. One usually solves for normal depth or width given flow rate and slope information
B

Normal depth implies that flow rate, velocity, depth, bottom slope, area, top width, and roughness remain constant within a prismatic channel as shown below

UNIFORM FLOW

Q V y S0 A B n

=C =C =C =C =C =C =C

Common Geometric Properties

Cot a = z/1

Optimal Channels - Max R and Min P

H = z + y + av2/2g = Total Energy

E =y+ av2/2g = Specific Energy a often near 1.0 for most channels

Energy Coeff.

a = S vi2 Qi V2 QT

Uniform Flow
Energy slope = Bed slope or dH/dx = dz/dx Water surface slope = Bed slope = dy/dz = dz/dx Velocity and depth remain constant with x

Critical Depth and Flow

Critical depth is used to characterize channel flows based on addressing specific energy E = y + v2/2g or E = y + Q2/2gA2
where Q/A = q/y and q = Q/b Take dE/dy = (1 q2/gy3) and set = 0. q = const

E = y + q2/2gy2 y Min E Condition, q = C

E

Solving dE/dy = (1 q2/gy3) and set = 0.

For a rectangular channel bottom width b,

1. Emin = 3/2Yc for critical depth y = yc 2. yc/2 = Vc2/2g 3. yc = (Q2/gb2)1/3

Froude No. = v/(gy)1/2 We use the Froude No. to characterize critical flows

Y vs E

E = y + q2/2gy2 q = const

Critical Flow in Open Channels

In general for any channel shape, B = top width

(Q2/g) = (A3/B)

at y = yc

Finally Fr = v/(gy)1/2 = Froude No. Fr = 1 for critical flow Fr < 1 for subcritical flow Fr > 1 for supercritical flow

Example Problems
Calculate the depth of water and the velocity for two trapezoidal channels:
Concrete lined Bottom width is 3 ft Slopes
2% 6%

Side slopes
2 to 1

Discharge of 30 cfs

Example Problem
Compute By Hand Compute using Visurban Compute using nomograph Compute using Flow Master

How do your answers compare to each other? Which channel is flowing super critical?

Travel Time
In summary, the velocity method is the common method of computing time of concentration using in TR-55 and TR-20.
Velocity Method (Overland, shallow concentrated and channel or pipe flow)
Travel Time (Tt) = L (length) / V (velocity)
(Equation 3-43)

Tc = summation of travel time for each flow segment

Other methods are available (empirical), Nomographs

Travel Time (cont)

Overland Flow
Refer to as sheet flow Occurs within the first 300 feet

In Equation 3-3, which is the SCS Kinematic Wave Equation

P is the 2-Year- 24 hour Precipitation Shallow Concentrated Flow

Occurs after 300 feet Calculated using equation 3-1 and Figure 3-1

Channel Flow or Pipe Flow

First use Manning's Equation to calculate velocity and then plug V into Equation 3-1 to get time.

Sheet Flow < 300 feet

0.007(nL) Tt 0.5 0.4 ( P2 ) s
where : Tt travel time (hr ) n Manning' s roughness coefficien t (table 3 1) L flow length ( ft) P2 2 year, 24 hour rain fall (in) s slope of hydraulic grade line (land slope ft / ft)

0.8

[eq. 3 3]

Shallow Concentrated Flow

Computing Tt
L Tt 3,600 V
Tt travel time (hr ) L flow length ( ft) V average velocity ( ft / s ) 3,600 conversion factor for seconds to hours

[eq.3 1]

Figure 3-1 Velocity

Average Velocity
Figure 3-1

Appendix F
For slopes < 0.005

Calculate Tt with Eq. 3-1

Shallow Concentrated Flow (cont.)

Appendix F (slope < 0.005)

Unpaved Paved

V 16.1345( s)

0.5 0.5

V 20.3282( s)

where : V average velocity ( ft / s ) s slope of hydraulic gradeline ( watercourse slope, ft / ft)

Open Channel Flow

Manning's Equation
2 3 1 2

1.49 r s V n

[eq. 3 4]
pw

r hydraulic radius ( ft) a

a cross sectional flow area ( ft2 ) pw wetted perimeter ( ft) s slope of the hydraulic gradeline (channel slope, ft / ft) n Manning' s roughness coefficien t

Example
Given
Hartford County, CT 2-Yr, 24-Hr rainfall = 3.6 A-B: Sheet flow, dense grass, s=0.01, L=100 B-C: Shallow concentrated flow, unpaved, s=0.01, L=1400 C-D: Channel flow, n=0.05, a=27ft2,pw=28.2, s=0.005, L=7300

Find

Tc at D

Travel Time (cont)

Examples
Use TR55 spreadsheet Use TR55 Program

National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Curve Number (CN) Concepts

Curve number of an indicates the runoff potential of the area (see table 3.18) 1) Antecedent moisture:
Is based upon rainfall during that occurred five days preceding the storm
a. AMC I (dry): little rainfall preceding the rainfall in question b. AMC II (average):
1.4-2.1 inches of rainfall during the previous 5 days during growing season 0.5-1.1 inches of rainfall during previous 5 days during dormant season

c. AMC III (wet): considerable rainfall prior to the rain in question

CN cont.
Changes in AMC are reflected through changes in the Curve Number Curve numbers given are for AMC II, which is based on median values for CN taken from sample rainfall and runoff data Curve numbers for antecedent conditions I or III can be estimated using: Table 3-19

2) Hydrologic Soil Group: see table 3-17 3) Land use: Land use coefficients are available for a large number of land uses and conditions. See table 3-18

Weighted CN

CNw=

Ai CN i Ai

NRCS Curve Number Method

Uses
Typically used in TR-55, TR-20, HEC-1 and HMS

Spread sheet available on Black Board On your free time please download the program and manual from NRCS. It will be needed in the future http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/hydro/hydro-toolsmodels-tr55.html

 P 0.2 S 2 Q P 0.8S
S 1000 10 CN

[eq. 2-3]

[eq. 2-4]

Q P S CN

= = = =

Runoff (in.) Rainfall (in.) Potential maximum retention after runoff begins (in.) SCS Runoff Curve Number

Primary Equations and Curve Numbers

CN Examples
Use TR-55 Use TR-55 Spread sheet Use TR-55 program