Stage-Discharge Modeling For Meandering Channels

Abstract

Flow in meandering channel is quite ubiquitous for natural flow systems such as in rives. Rivers generally follow this pattern for minimization of energy loss. However, several factors such as environmental condition, roughness are responsible for generation of this path for rivers. Selection of proper value of Roughness coefficient is essential for evaluating the actual carrying capacity of Natural channel. An excessive value underestimates the discharge and a low value can over estimates. The resistance to the flow in a river is dependent on a number of flow and surface and geometrical parameters. The influences of all the parameters are assumed to be lumped into a single value of Manning’s n .It is seen that Manning’s coefficient n not only denotes the roughness characteristics of a channel but also the energy loss in the flow. The larger the value of n, the higher is the loss of energy within the flow. Experimental investigations concerning the variation of roughness coefficients for a highly meandering channel for different flow condition, geometry are presented. The flow properties are found to be affected by different geometric, surface and flow parameters. In the present work, an attempt has been made to analyses the important parameters affecting the flow behavior and flow resistance in term of Manning’ n in a meandering channel. The factors influencing for predicting the roughness coefficient of a meandering channel are non-dimensionlised and its dependency with different parameters are studied. Further, a regression analysis has been done to formulate a mathematical model to predict the roughness coefficient. The equation can be suitably applied to predict the stage-discharge relationships of a meandering channel. The efficacy of the proposed equation has also been tested not only to the present data sets but also the data of other investigators.