Stage-Discharge Prediction in Compound Channels
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 4
Abstract
The failure of conventional methods for discharge prediction in compound channels results from their ignorance of the loss in conveyance arising from the complicated flow interaction between the main channel and its associated floodplains. In this paper, a new method is presented for assessing the stage-discharge relationship and the discharge distribution in compound channels by considering both the momentum transfer between the upper and lower main channel flows and that between the upper main channel and its adjoining floodplain flows. A calibration using data from the laboratory channels and three natural rivers demonstrates that the presented method can give predictions that agree better with the experimental and field data. The computed results also show that the method not only is well capable of predicting the discharge distributions of the floodplain and the whole main channel, but also of predicting the discharge distribution in the lower main channel. In addition, the momentum transfer coefficient introduced in the presented method is also further discussed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge Professor Donald W. Knight at the University of Birmingham, U.K., who provided a large number of experimental data and field data of River Severn, River Main, and River Colorado. The authors also would like to acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (Nos. 51279117 and 50709021), the National Science and Technology Ministry (No. 2012BAB05B02), and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China (NCET-13-0393). The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions on this paper.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 4 • April 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 3, 2011
Accepted: Oct 11, 2013
Published online: Oct 14, 2013
Published in print: Apr 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Jun 6, 2014
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