Water surface profile computation for compound channel having diverging floodplains

Abstract

Water level determination during a flood is always a challenging task for river engineers. Because the flow inundates the surrounding area where it gets the least resistance. The floodplain thus increases gradually and move away from the main channel known as a diverging compound channel. To predict the water surface profile in the diverging compound channel, experiments have been conducted in the laboratory for different geometric and hydraulic conditions. A multivariable regression model (MRM) has been developed to predict the water surface profile for such channels. The dependency of water surface profiles on five different non-dimensional parameters such as diverging angle, relative depth, relative distance, width ratio, and aspect ratio are analyzed. Using the relevant experimental data, non-linear regression has been performed. The results obtained from the present water surface profile model shows good agreement with the observed data and the other researcher’s data-sets. Various statistical error analyses are performed to verify the reliability of the developed multivariable regression model.