LEARNING MODULE SURIGAO STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Topic : Hydraulic Processes

Time Frame : 9 hours

Introduction

Hydraulics is defined as the study of liquid (water) flow in pipes and open channels,
referred to as pipe flow and open-channel flow, respectively. Pipe flow and open-channel
flow are similar in many ways but have one major difference. Open-channel flow occurs
when there is a free surface, whereas pipe flow does not have a free surface. Pipe flow here
refers to pressurized flow in pipes as long as there is not a free surface. Open-channel flow
can occur in pipes.
The purpose of this lesson is to present some of the fundamental principles of fluid
mechanics including fluid properties. Presented also in this topic are the hydraulic processes
of a pressurized pipe flow, open-channel flow and groundwater flow. This topic also
considers the quantity aspects, in particular the hydraulic flow processes, emphasizing
aquifer hydraulics. Both pipe flow and open-channel flow are expressed in terms of the
discharge Q, cross-sectional averaged velocity V, and cross-sectional area of flow A.

Objectives

At the end of this topic, you are expected to:

1. Apply concepts of pressurized pipe flow and open channel flow
2. Discuss the principles of flow
3. Recall hydrostatic forces.

Pretest
Hydraulic Processes

Learning Activities

Activity 1: Read the following theories and concepts.

Flow and Hydrostatic Forces

Properties of Water

Mass Density, often called density is the mass per unit volume with units of kilogram (kg) per
cubic meter (m3) The Greek symbol ρ (rho) is used to denote density. The mass density of
water at

Specific weight is the gravitational force (weight) per unit volume of water denoted by the
Greek symbol ϒ (gamma).

The relationship between density and specific weight is

Specific gravity of a fluid refers to the ratio of the specific weight of a given liquid to the
specific weight of water.

Viscosity is the measure of its resistance to shear or angular deformation. For a velocity
gradient, dv/dy, the shear stress τ (tau) between any two thin sheets of fluid is

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Thus the definition of dynamic viscosity is the ratio of shear stress to the velocity gradient.

Kinematic viscosity is the ratio of the dynamic viscosity to the density in which the Greek
symbol γ (nu) is used to identify the kinematic viscosity.

Kinematic viscosity has units of

while dynamic viscosity has units of

The shear stress in fluids is involved with the cohesion forces between molecules.
Stress applied to fluids causes motion whereas solids can resist shear stress in a static
condition. Considering flow of water in a pipe, the water near the center of the pipe has a
greater velocity than the water near the wall. Shear force is increased or decreased in direct
proportion to increases or decreases in relative velocity. Shear stress has units N/m2.

Ideal fluids are defined as the ones in which viscosity is zero, there is no friction.
Such fluids do not exist in reality but the concept is useful in many types of fluid analysis.
Real fluids do consider viscosity effects so that shear force exists whenever motion takes
place, thus producing fluid friction.

Elasticity

Elasticity (or compressibility) is important when we talk about water hammer in the
hydraulics pipe flow. Elasticity of water is related to the amount of deformation (expansion or
contraction) induced by a pressure change. Elasticity is characterized by the bulk modulus of
elasticity, E, which is defined as the ratio of relative change in volume due to a differential
change in pressure

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Pressure and Pressure Variation

Gauge pressure uses atmospheric pressure as the datum. Absolute pressure is the
pressure above absolute zero. Vacuum refers to pressure less than atmospheric pressure.
At absolute zero, pressure is a perfect vacuum. The pressure force F exerted by water on a
plane area A is the product of the area and the pressure at its centroid, expressed as

where z refers to elevation. The equation above is the basic equation for hydraulic
pressure variation with elevation. For water on a horizontal plane, the pressure everywhere
on this plane is constant. The greatest possible change in hydrostatic pressure occurs along
a vertical path through water.

Considering the specific weight to be constant the equation can be integrated to obtain

The figure below shoes (a) the relationship between various pressure and (b) example of
pressure relation.

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Flow Visualization
Streamlines are lines drawn through a fluid field so that the velocity vectors of the
fluid at all points on the streamlines are tangent to the streamline at any instant in time. The
tangent of the curve at any point along the streamline is the direction of te velocity vector at
that point in the flow field.
In the Eulerian viewpoint, the total velocity is expressed as a function of position
along a streamline, x, and time t

A uniform flow is defined as one in which the velocity does not change from point to point
along any of the streamlines in the flow field. Thus the streamlines are straight and parallel,
so that

The figure above shows the streamlines (a) flow in a conduit, (b) flow from a slot, (c) open-
channel flow (uniform) and (d) open-channel flow (non-uniform)

When streamlines are not straight there is a directional change in velocity. If they are
parallel, there is a change in speed along the streamlines. Under such circumstances the
flow is non-uniform flow and

Example 1. A river section is defined by two bridges. At a particular time the flow at the
upstream bridge is 100 m3/s and at the same time the flow at the downstream bridge is 75
m3/s. At this particular time, what is the rate at which water is being stored in the river
section, assuming no losses?
Solution: using the continuity equation

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Steady flow occurs when the velocity at a point in the flow field does not vary in magnitude
or direction with respect to time.

Unsteady flow occurs when the velocity does not vary in magnitude or direction at a point in
the flow field with respect to time.

Turbulent flow is caused by eddies of varying size within the flow that create a mixing action.
The fluid particles follow irregular and erratic paths and no two particles have similar motion.
Flow in river is a good example of turbulent flow. The index used to relate turbulent is the
Reynolds number

Laminar flow does not have the eddies that cause the intense mixing and therefore the flow
is very smooth. The fluid particles move in definite paths and the fluid appears to move by
the sliding of laminations of infinitesimal thickness relative to the adjacent layers.

Self evaluation
Activity 2. Solve the following problems:

1. If 10 m3 of a liquid weighs 60 kN, calculate its specific weight, density and specific
gravity.
2. The specific gravity and kinematic viscosity of a certain liquid are 1.5 and 4 x 10 -4
m2/s, respectively. What is its dynamic viscosity?
3. A liquid has a density of 700 kg/m3 and a dynamic viscosity of 0.0042 kg/m.s. What is
its kinematic viscosity?
4. Determine the bulk modulus of elasticity of a liquid by using the following data:
volume is 3000 cm3 at 2MPa and 3 MPa at volume 2750 cm3
5. What is the capillary rise of water in a glass tube having a diameter of 0.02 in at 70°F
(take Ɵ = 0)

Pressurized Pipe Flow

Pressurized flow in pipes is a flow confined within closed conduit which does not
exert direct atmospheric pressure but does exert hydraulic pressure on the conduit.

Example: Water flows in a trapezoidal channel having a bottom width of 15 ft and side slope
of 1 vertical to 1.5 horizontal at a rate of 200 cfs. Is the flow a subcritical or a supercritical
flow if the depth of the flow is 2ft?

Solution: To find out whether the flow is subcritical or supercritical, the Froude number
should be calculated.

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Open-Channel Flow

Open-channel flow refers to that flow whose top surface is exposed to atmospheric
pressure. This section describes the continuity, energy, and momentum equations for steady
uniform flow in open channels.

The energy equation for open-channel flow can be derived in a similar manner as the nergy
equation for pipe flow using the control volume approach.

The energy equation for one-dimensional flow in an open channel is

The energy equation for nonuniform open-channel flow is expressed as

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Example 2:
An 8-ft wide rectangular channel with a bed slope of 0.0004 ft/ft has a depth of flow of
2 ft. Assuming steady uniform flow, determine the discharge in the channel. The Manning
roughness coefficient is n = 0.015

Solution:

Using SI units in the example above, the channel width is 2.438 m with a depth of flow of
0.610 meter

To determine the normal depth (for uniform flow) for the channel described has a flow rate of
100 cfs. Newton’s method is used.

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Example 3
Determine the cross-section of greatest hydraulic efficiency for a trapezoidal channel
if the design discharge is 10 m3/sec, the channel slope is 0.00052, and Manning’s n = 0.025.

Solution

Manning’s equation is used to determine the depth

Self evaluation

Activity 3. Solve the following problems to check your understanding of the topic.

1. Determine the uniform flow depth in a rectangular channel 2.5 m wide a discharge of
3 m3/s. The slope is 0.0004 and Manning’s roughness factor is 0.015.
2. Determine the uniform flow depth in a trapezoidal channel with a bottom width of 8 ft
and side slopes of 1 vertical to 2 horizontal. The discharge is 100 ft3/s. Manning’s
roughness factor is 0.015 and the channel bottom slope is 0.0004.
3. Compute the normal depth of flow in a 36-in diameter culvert with a slope of 0.0016
and Manning’s n of 0.015 for a discharge of 20 cfs.
4. Using the slope-area method, compute the flood discharge through a river reach of
800 ft having known values of water areas, conveyances and energy coefficients of
the upstream and downstream end sections. The fall of the water surface is 1.0 ft.

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5. A 6 ft diameter concrete-lined sewer has a bottom slope of 1.5 ft/mi. find the depth of
flow for a discharge of 20 cfs.

Groundwater Flow

Groundwater hydrology is the science that considers the occurrence, distribution, and
movement of water below the surface of the earth. (Todd and Mays, 2005) the topic will only
consider the quantity aspects, in particular the hydraulic processes, emphasizing aquifer
hydraulics.

Groundwater Concepts
Groundwater originates through infiltration, influent streams, seepage from
reservoirs, artificial recharge, condensation, seepage from oceans, water trapped in the
sedimentary rock, and juvenile water (volcanic, magmatic, and cosmic) An aquifer may be
defined as a formation that contains sufficient saturated permeable material to yield
significant quantities of water to wells. Aquifer are usually of large areal extent and are
essentially underground storage reservoirs. They may be overlain or underlain by a confining
bed, which is a relatively impermeable material adjacent to the aquifer.

Aquifer Properties
Aquifers perform two important functions: a storage function and a conduit function.
Aquifers store water and also function as a pipeline. When water is drained from a saturated
material under the influence of gravity, only a portion of the total saturated volume in the
pores is released.

The specific yield Sy which is the storage term for unconfined aquifers, is the volume of
water drained from a saturated sample of unit volume with a unit decrease in the water table.

Specific retention Sr is the quantity of water that is retained in the unit volume after gravity
drainage. The sum of the specific yield and the specific retention for saturated aquifers is the
porosity,

Porosity is the pore volume divided by the total volume, expressed as a percent. Porosity
represents the potential storage of an aquifer but does not indicate the amount of water a
porous material will yield.

The storage coefficient of an aquifer is the volume of water the aquifer releases from or
takes into storage per unit surface area of the aquifer per unit decline or rise of head.

The specific storage Ss of a saturated aquifer is the volume of water that a unit volume of
aquifer releases from storage under a unit decline in hydraulic head.

Hydraulic conductivity also referred to as coefficient of permeability is the property related to

the conduit function of an aquifer. It is the measure of ease of moving groundwater through
aquifers.

Hydraulic gradient is the headloss divided by the distance between the two points.

The flow through an aquifer is expressed by Darcy’s Law, which is the foundation of
groundwater hydraulics. This law states that the flow rate through porous media is
proportional to headloss and inversely proportional to the length of the flow path.

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Confined Aquifer

The flow in one-dimensional confined aquifer is shown in figure below. The head
decreases linearly with flow in the x direction.

Unconfined Aquifer

For one-dimensional steady-state flow in an unconfined aquifer, Darcy’s Law is use.

this equation indicates a parabolic surface of the saturated

portion of the aquifer between x1 and x2.

Well Hydraulics
At initiation of discharge (pumpage) from a well, theoretically the water level or head
in the well is lowered relative to the undisturbed condition of the piezometric surface or water
table outside the well. In the aquifer surrounding the well, the water flows radially to the
lower level in the well. For artesian conditions, the actual flow distribution of the flow
conforms relatively close to the theoretical shortly after pumping starts. However, in non-
artesian (free aquifer) conditions the actual distribution of flow may not conform to the
theoretical as illustrated by the successive stages of development of flow distribution

Example 4:

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A well fully penetrates a 25 m thick confined aquifer. After a long period of pumping
at a constant rate of 0.05 m 3/s, the drawdowns at a distances of 50 m and 150 m from the
well were observed to be 3 m and 1.2 m respectively. Determine the hydraulic conductivity
and the transmissivity. What type of unconsolidated deposit would you expect this to be?

Solution:
To determine the hydraulic conductivity with Q = 0.05 m3/s, ri = 50 m, r2 = 150 m, S1 =
ho – h1 and S2 = ho – h2 so S1 – S2 = h2 – h1 = 3 – 1.2 = 1.8 m

Then the transmissivity is T = Kb = (1.94 x 10 -4)(25) = 4.85 x 10-3 m2/s.

Example 5
A 2-ft diameter well penetrates vertically through a confined aquifer 50 ft thick. When
the well is pumped at 500 gpm, the drawdown in a well 50 ft away is 10 ft and in another well
100 ft away is 3 ft. What is the approximate head in the pumped well for steady-state
conditions, and what is the approximate drawdown in the well? Also compute the
transmissivity. Take the initial piezometric levels as 100 ft above the datum.

Solution:
first determine the hydraulic conductivity

then compute the transmissivity

approximate head h in the pumped well

Drawdown is then equal to 100 – 50.6 ft = 49.6 ft.

Example 6

A well penetrates an unconfined aquifer. Prior to pumping, the water level (head) is h0 = 25
m After a long period of pumping at a constant rate of 0.05 m3/s, the drawdowns at
distances of 50 and 150 m from the well were observed to be 3 m and 1.2 m respectively.
Determine the hydraulic conductivity. What type of deposits would the aquifer material
probably be?

Solution:

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Example 7

A well 12 – in. in diameter penetrates 108 ft below the static water table. After a long period
of pumping at a rate of 350 gpm, the drawdown in wells 57 ft and 148 ft from the pumped
well were found to be 12 ft and 7.4 ft respectively. What is the transmissivity of the aquifer?
What is the approximate drawdown in the pumped well?

Solution:

Review of Concepts

The concept of energy is important in pipe flow. There are three energy components
in pipe flow: (1) energy due to motion (Kinetic energy), (2) energy due to elevation
(Gravitational Potential energy and (3) energy due to pressure.
The flow of liquid through a channel with a free surface is defined as open channel
flow. This free surface of the liquid is subjected to atmospheric pressure. Hence, open
channel flow can also be defined as the flow of liquid through a passage at atmospheric
pressure. The flow in an open channel takes place due to gravity that is achieved by
providing a bed slope. The flow of liquid through the open channel can be of several types
like steady and unsteady flow, laminar or turbulent flow or uniform or non-uniform flow and
finally sub-critical, critical and supercritical flow.
In an open channel flow, if the flow parameters such as depth of flow, the velocity of
flow and the rate of flow at a particular point on the fluid do not change with respect to time,
then it is called as steady flow. The flow in the channel is said to be uniform, if, for a given
length of the channel, the velocity of flow, the depth of flow remains constant. In a Non-
uniform flow, the flow parameters like velocity, depth of flow, etc do not remain constant for a
given length of the channel. Laminar and turbulent flow in open channel flow is defined
based on the Reynolds Number.
The open channel flow is categorized as critical or sub-critical or super-critical based
on the Froude number Fe. Open channel flow is Sub-critical if the Froude number is less
than 1. Sub-Critical open channel flow is also defined as a tranquil or streaming flow. An
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open channel flow with a Froude number equal to one is a critical flow. And super-critical
flow in open channel has a Froude number greater than 1. A supercritical flow is also termed
as rapid flow or torrential flow or shooting flow.
A confined aquifer is an aquifer below the land surface that is saturated with water.
Layers of impermeable material are both above and below the aquifer, causing it to be under
pressure so that when the aquifer is penetrated by a well, the water will rise above the top of
the aquifer.
A water-table--or unconfined--aquifer is an aquifer whose upper water surface (water
table) is at atmospheric pressure, and thus is able to rise and fall. Water-table aquifers are
usually closer to the Earth's surface than confined aquifers are, and as such are impacted by
drought conditions sooner than confined aquifers.

Posttest
Hydraulic Processes

References:

Mays, L (2001) “Water Resources Engineering”, First Edition, John Wiley and Sons.
Linsley, R K and Franzini, J B (1979) “Water Resources Engineering”, Third Edition, McGraw
Hill, Inc.
Kharagpur (2008) “Water Resources Engineering”, First Edition

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