Stable Alluvial Canal Design

The hypothesis of minimum stream power for stable alluvial channels has been used to derive a condition for alluvial channels in equilibrium. A method incorporating this condition with a flow-resistance formula and a sediment-discharge formula has been developed to compute the width, depth, and slope of stable alluvial channels for a given set of water and sediment discharges. Applying this method yields a design chart that provides the stable width and depth of alluvial canals with trapezoidal shape for a given set of water discharge, channel slope, sediment size, and side slope. Comparing data from some regime canals and small experimental canals has shown good agreement between the observed data and analytical predictions.