Simplified procedure for determining of drop and stilling basin invert elevations

Abstract

Drops are used to effectively dissipate the surplus energy of the water flow. A closed conduit drop conveys water and stills it at its downstream. I-type pipe drop is one kind of the closed conduit drops which is used in irrigation networks as a typical hydraulic structure. Sump elevation is an important design parameter for I-type pipe drop. Similarly, in supercritical flow structures, such as open channel chutes, determination of stilling basin invert elevation is very important. At present, these key design parameters are determined by the momentum and energy equations using tedious trial-and-error procedure. In this study, square conduit drop, pipe drop, and rectangular stilling basin are considered, and three explicit equations have been developed by (multiple) nonlinear regression technique to determine the sump and stilling basin invert elevations. Being very simple and accurate, these equations can be easily used to design the closed conduit drops and stilling basins by hydraulic engineers.