Hydrodynamic characteristics of grass swale runoff in Guanzhong area of Loess Plateau, Northwest China.

Abstract

Grass swale has been widely used in sponge city construction, which can effectively improve the urban ecological environment. To explore the regulation mechanism of runoff in grass swale, runoff scouring experiment was carried out to study the hydrodynamic characteristics of runoff and the distribution of cross-section velocity under the combined conditions of five slopes (1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%) and five scour flows (20, 30, 40, 50, 60 L·min-1). With the increases of flow rate and slope, flow velocity, Reynolds number and Froude number all increased gradually, while the Manning roughness coefficient and Darcy-Weisbach friction coefficient decreased gradually. The velocity (V) could be expressed as a power function V=0.3387Q0.555S0.6601 of flow rate (Q) and slope (S). The variation ranges of Reynolds number and Froude number were 1160.95-6596.82 and 0.17-1.21, respectively. The runoff flow patterns were all turbulent. The flow pattern was greatly affected by the slope. When flow rate and slope were small, they had great influence on friction coefficient. Under the experimental conditions, the Darcy-Weisbach friction coefficient was negatively correlated with Reynolds number. The velocity distribution of cross-section showed symmetrical distribution on both sides of the center. The maximum velocity point was located at the center of water surface. With the increases of flow rate and slope, the velocity contours of cross section gradually became dense and the gradient of the velocity change increased. Our results provide a theoretical basis for the design, application and hydraulic calculation of grass swale in the construction of sponge cities in loess areas, and reveal the runoff regulation mechanism by analyzing the hydraulic characteristics of grass swale runoff.