Friction Factors for Flow through Cracks in Concrete Hydraulic Structures
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 151, Issue 1
Abstract
Flow through cracks in a variety of concrete structures can be problematic for water resources infrastructure. Design of drainage systems to collect and remove such flow requires estimating flow rates through cracks. When the crack is wide or the flow path is relatively short, entrance losses dominate, and discharge may be estimated using orifice equations that neglect friction losses. However, for relatively narrow and long cracks with rough interior surfaces, friction losses can significantly affect discharge. This article reanalyzes data previously collected from tests of flow through a cracked concrete beam to obtain Darcy-Weisbach friction factors and presents them relative to the Reynolds number of the flow through the crack, similar to the Moody diagram commonly used to estimate friction factors in pipe flow. The data are also used to develop an empirical equation for predicting friction factors and to determine the effective roughness of the cracked concrete surfaces. Observations are made regarding unexpected behavior of friction factors for the combination of low Reynolds number and extremely large relative roughness, which is outside the bounds of most previous research on flow resistance.
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Data Availability Statement
All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work was jointly funded by the Bureau of Reclamation Dam Safety Office (Technology Development Program) and Research Office (Science and Technology Program). Joseph Kubitschek provided internal peer review. The authors appreciate the assistance and background information provided by Ravi Kanitkar, the principal investigator for the original experimental work. The anonymous reviewers and Associate Editor also provided insightful suggestions and directed us to additional helpful literature.
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Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 151 • Issue 1 • January 2025
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This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
History
Received: Dec 20, 2023
Accepted: Jul 23, 2024
Published online: Sep 20, 2024
Published in print: Jan 1, 2025
Discussion open until: Feb 20, 2025
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