Fluid Mechanicsi eminities. 10.7 FLOW MEASUREMENT BY WeiRs! A weir is an obstruction in the bottom of a channel wh over. For certain simple geometries the channel disch blockage height H to which the upstream flow is dell weir. Thus & weir is an elementary but eflective opencehay Figure 10.12 shows two common weirs, sharp-eteste {assumed to be very wide. In both cases the Hv upstream i {0 critical neae the top ofthe weir, and spills over in a ss splashes into the downstream low. In both cans. the dischare 4p Proportional to H5° where His the height of the upstream flow shee, the weir. The correlation changes ifthe nappe is unvemilated sn! weit wall downstream. (The spillway of Fig. 108 is a sort of ene hich can also be calibrated in the form q = cH®2) o Nowmete Analysis of Sharp-Crested Weirs One can analyze weir low by neglecting fiction and using potential the &) with an unknown free surface. The solutions are complicated but sec 15}. ats, simple frictionless one-dimensional analysis ic eredited to the French Saginest J. V. Boussinesq in 1907. As sketched in Fig. 0-12a, one estimates the velocity distribution Hh) above oint 1 upstream, From Fig. 10.124, © weir from the Bernoulli equation related 10 Thon the volume rate of =e0 Where we have taken without proof thatthe nappe is only about 243 the weir, Normally the upstream velocity heat. 12 (10.56) becomes. E 7S OSTEQWNE? uio.s%) The formula is functionatly correct, but the cock tend contractions. friction, snd surfice620 Fig. 1012. Flow over ssi (a) shrp era (Oy brome theory. The accepted formula for flow metering uses a weir coefficient Ce correlate from experiments by T. Rehbock in 1929 a= 3C00)2H82 |, 0075 y (1058) where c 611 Analysis of Broad-Crested Weirs ‘The broad-crested weir of Fig. 10.12b is very easy to analyze because it creates @ short run of nearly one-dimensional critical flow over its top. The Bernoulli ‘equation from upstream to the top of the weir gives Wt 7 ty 10.59) % wy 4 from Eq, (10.33), we can solve for 2H Vi 2H +i 0.60) 3 tay 3 o coin meres ne aithatommancnaetnamaataainstannnnatmeniinei neeEXAMPLE 108 Solution Part (a) Part (b) OPEN-CHANNEL FLOW 621 Which is the estimate we used without proof in Eq, (10.56), The fow rate is thus sven by 4 = (992) (10.61) I we neglect the upstream velocity head, this reduces to 4 BMV Q9)H? (10.62) By comparison with Eq, (10.58), the broad-crested weir has a theoretical weir coefficient C, = 3") = 0.577, The formula recommended in Ref. 16 varies with weir height 06: Caan (10.63) ‘See Re. 3, pp. 52-53, for a description of test data. ‘A weir ina horizontal channel is 12 wide and 4 high. The upstream water depth is 52 Estimate the discharge ifthe wer is a) sharpwcrested; (b) broad: crested. We are given Y= 4 ft and ¥ 4H 52; hence H = 1.2. The sharp-orested-weie coef sient from Eg. (10.58) is 075012) 4 ‘ase = 0611 + = 06s 0 that the ow rate per unit width is 09342132.) 46 £245: The total discharge is Que = gb = [446 15: 1Y]C2 = 585 85 Ans (a) End contractions [3, p, 362] reduce this by about 2 percent, The broad-crested-weie coeficlentfeom Eq, (1083) is 065 Come TF 12H Since everything else isthe sume, we simply scale doven the shagp-reste result GeeCune _53.50570) Cue Case 068 = 481 1s Ans. (0) End contractions are neligible. We can correct for upsteam velocity head by computing ¥, = gift + ¥) = 48.1/12)/52 =0077 ts, Hence Wi = H+ V2y = 1.200% and use of HF instead of I in Eg, (10.62) gives 48.7 19/5, oF | percent more. Backwater Curves ‘A weir isa flow barrier which not only alters the local flow over the weir but also ‘modifies the flow depth distribution far upstream. Any strong barrier in an open: channel flow creates a backwater curve, which can be computed by the gradually622. FLUID MECHANICS EXAMPLE 109 Fig FIs Solution varied flow methods of Sec. 10.6. Analysis ofthe flow near the barrier determines the local water depth just upstream, which then is used as input for numerical analysis of Eq, (101) or (10.55). For a dam or weit, dam height Y and flow rate Q fare known, whence Eq, (10.58) can be solved for H, so that the total upstream water depth is y = ¥ + H. Civil engineers refer toa barrier as a control point where water depth can be specified as a function of low rate, These are the starting points for ‘numerical analysis of floodvater profiles in rivers as made, for example, by the US. Army Corps of Engineers [18]. We can illustrate backwater-curve computation with the following example. A rectangular channel $m wide, with a flow rate of 30m/s, encounters a 4-m-high ‘Sharpvedged dam, as shown in Fig. £109, Determine the water depth 2 km upstream i the anne! slope is Sy = 00004 and n = 0025. {Urom wer theory) 4 0m Manning’ “The water depth just upstream of the dam (See Fig. E1039) is determined by wee theory, Ea (1038) @_3 =o. 2 (yeti +0075) pxasny? #22 (oa +00) 20810 4 By tral and error determine H = 158m, whence y'= ¥-+ H or 558 mat x = 0. Thisis our intial point for applying gradually varied theory We should yet that the upstream flow is suberitical, so that weir theory is valid Supereritieal flow approaching barter will create quite diffrent effect, such as @ ‘hydraulic jump or other rapidly varied flow, Equation (10-30) predicts thatthe rica dept &) ~[wen] This is shown in Fig, E109, and since it is ess than Asm 558 m, the low is suberitclOPEN-CHANNEL FLOW 623 We could now plunge right into gradually varied theory but its better to check the ‘normal depth to see what typeof flow profile the backwater curve is From Eg, (10-21) for the given, = 301 anpsy? = ¢¢y)( 2) "(ooo0y02 7 s o Since we want to compute y at x = ~2000 m (reall that x decreases upstream), we shall apply Ea. (1) in four equal increments Av = — S00 m, The numerical results areas follows: fa mv? ay x r voi moa 0 ssa) 967 0902233 000309 000311 0.156 ~S00 $424 06910991 2.30 0.000302 0.000302 -a1s2 =1000 5272 oTt a9%9 2.00024 0.000297 0.139 1500 5.123 0732 0989 225 000286 o.000289 ~o1s ‘The theory ths predicts that the water depth 2 km upstream is about 498 m, The change in dept is very small because the slope i very mild and the Froude numerals sey sal (about 0.1, IFS, mand & remain constant upsteeam, the Now will approach the normal depth, yz = 320m, at about x= —16 km, SUMMARY This chapter is an introduction to open-channel flow analysis, limited to steady, one-dimensional flow conditions, The basic analysis combines the continui ‘cquation with the extended Bernoulli equation including friction losses, Open-channel flows are classified either by depth variation or by Froude ‘number, the latter being analogous to the Mach number in compressible dict flow (Chap. 9). Flow at constant slope and depth is called wniform flow and satisfies the classical Chéey equation (10,20). Straight prismatie channels ean be optimized to find the eross ection which gives maximum flow rate with minimutnfrition losses.