Hydraulic calculation of steady uniform flows in trapezoidal compound open channels

Abstract

Hydraulic calculation of steady uniform flows in trapezoidal compound open channels is studied. Based on the force balance of water in each sub-section, the average velocities of the main channel, side slope, and floodplain are derived. The lateral momentum exchanges between the sub-sections are expressed by using the apparent shear stress. To verify the model, seven groups of UK Flood Channel Facility (UK-FCF) measured data with a relative water depth between the floodplain and the main channel varying from 0.057 to 0.4 are used for comparison. The result shows that the calculated velocity is larger than the measured data when the relative water depth is small, while it is less than or close to the measured value in the case of a larger relative water depth. The influence of the apparent shear stress on the calculation of velocity on the floodplain is not obvious, while it is much greater on the main channel. The three-stage model is compared with Liu’s two-stage model, showing that the former can give a better prediction for a three-stage trapezoidal compound channel. Finally, the apparent shear stress is calculated and compared with the measured data. The result shows that the chosen values of the momentum transfer coefficients are appropriate.