Decay of Mass Oscillations in Rectangular Basins

The objective of the present study is to examine the decay of mass oscillations as a possible avenue for scaling friction in a hydraulic model of closed basins. A mathematical model for the damping of the uninodal seiche in a rectangular closed basin utilizing the one-dimensional hydrodynamic channel equation is presented as the analytical approach to the problem. Experimental data are presented for comparison with the analytical results. It is shown that the similitude requirement for frictional damping requires equality of the Froude number in model and prototype and equality of the Proudman number in the model and prototype. Through adjustment of boundary friction, model verification can be accomplished when the aforementioned criteria can not be met. The present study elaborates upon other previous work, and gives improved theoretical predictions for a long wave and shallow basin.