A rectangular channel (b = 15 m, length = 10 km, slope =1/10000, Manning’s n =0.015) fed by an upstream lake is discharging into a down-stream lake. If the upstream and downstream lake levels are 1.5 m and 2 m (above the channel bed) respectively, determine the discharge rate in the channel.
Solution:
The channel delivery depends upon the following considerations:
Is the channel long (i.e. no downstream control)?
Is the slope mild or critical or steep?
If we assume a long and resistance equations at its inlet are appli-critical sloped channel, the two equations are the energy equation and the critical depth criterion. Here it is convenient to assume initially a long and critical slope channel. Since the channel is of rectangular cross section yc =2/3 H =1m Therefore, from the resistance equation(uniform flow depth yc) the critical slope Sc = 0.00256 >So=0.0001 (see Example 8.25). Hence the channel is of mild slope; if we still assume it is ong, we now can obtain the corresponding uniform flow rate, Qo, from the energy and resistance equations.
Is the chanel long enough to satisfy the above assumptions?
Identify the type of water surface profile based on the discharge, uniform flow depth and the downstream lake level and compute its length. If the surface profile length < channel length, the channel is long enough and uniform flow does exist at the inlet t.e. free inlet. If the profile length> channel length, the inlet will be drowned (short channel) and the discharge rate is reduced. To compute the actual discharge rate in a short channel, the following iterative procedure is to be followed:
Assume Q