CHAPTER 5

Reservoir Capacity Determination

• Reservoirs are man-made lakes created to store water during times of excess
flow and supply it from storage when the demand exceeds the inflow.
• reservoir capacity: is a term used to represent the reservoir storage capacity
• In general, there is high flow in winter and low flow in summer
• On the other hand, the water demand is high in summer and low in winter.
• Therefore, the regulation of the streamflow is required to meet the demands.
• This regulation is possible by constructing reservoirs in the stream.
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• In general, Depending upon the purpose served reservoirs may be
broadly categorized into :
 Storage or conservation reservoirs: A reservoir with gate-controlled
outlets wherein surface water may be retained for a considerable period of
time and released for use at a time when the normal flow of the stream is in
sufficient to satisfy requirements.
 Flood control reservoirs: it stores a portion of flood flows in such a way as
to minimize the flood peaks and It protects the areas lying on its downstream
side from the damages due to flood.
 Multipurpose reservoirs: A reservoir constructed to provide storage and
release of water for two or more purposes such as: irrigation, flood control,
power generation, navigation, pollution reduction, domestic and industrial
water supply, fish culture, recreation, etc.
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• The construction of a reservoir can have many consequences
* modification of the river discharges downstream;
* changes in groundwater levels in the region;
* changes in the sediment transport and river morphology downstream of the
dam
* changes in water quality;
* changes in the landscape;
* changes in fauna and flora in the region;
* changes in the economic and social conditions;
* risk of failure, etc
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• There are number of purposes of constructing reservoirs
֍ Irrigation,
֍Water supply (municipal and industrial)
֍ Sediment accumulation,
֍ Hydropower (Electricity generation)
֍Flood control, and
֍ Recreational
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The storage capacity of a reservoir is conceptually divided into a number of zones
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Dead storage zone is the bottom-most zone of a reservoir. It is the minimum
reservoir level below which, water is not allowed to be drawn for conservation
purposes
conservation zone: it is known as live storage and it is the difference between the
storages at full reservoir level and dead storage level
 flood control storage is provided above the conservation(active) zone flowed
by the surcharge storage
 Full reservoir level (FRL): It is the level of spillway crest (for un gated
spillway) or the top of spillway gate (for gated spillway) to which the reservoir
is usually filled.
 Maximum water level (MWL): It is the new elevation to which, water in the
reservoir rises when design flood impinges at full reservoir level.
 Reservoir Capacity Determination methods
• There are four different methods to determine the capacity if a reservoir
• Mass Curve (Ripple diagram) Method,
• Sequent Peak Algorithm,
• Operation Study, and
• Other Approaches (Stochastic Methods and Optimization Analysis etc.…)
 Depends upon the inflow available and demand
• If the inflow in the river is always greater than the demand, there is no
storage required
• If the inflow in the river is small but the demand is high, a large reservoir
capacity is required.
 I. Mass curve (ripple's) method
• A mass curve (or mass inflow curve) is a plot of accumulated flow in a stream against time.
It rises continuously as it shows accumulated flows.
• This is a simple method which is commonly used to estimate the required storage capacity of
a reservoir in project planning stage.
• The method uses the most critical period of recorded flow to compute storage.
• The critical period is defined as the duration of lowest flow observed in the records of the
stream.
• Mass curve procedure
► A mass curve is prepared from the flow hydrograph for a number of consecutive years
selected from the available stream flow record such that it includes the most critical or the
driest period.
► Corresponding to the given rate of demand, a demand curve is prepared.
► Lines are drawn parallel to the demand curve and tangential to the high points(D and E) of
the mass curve
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► The maximum vertical intercepts between the tangential lines to the
following low points of the mass curve ( F and G) drawn in step 3 are measured
► The largest of the maximum vertical intercepts determined in step 4
represents the reservoir capacity required to satisfy the given demand.
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• Example:3 The following table gives the mean monthly flows in a river during certain year.
Calculate the minimum storage required for maintaining a demand rate of Mean flow
(Average flow): Mean flow = 555.9167

Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Discharge
(MCM) 296 386 504 714 810 1154 746 1158 348 150 223 182

• Solution: Discharge
Month (MCM) cum. Discharge Demand CUM.Demand
1 296 296 555.9167 555.9167
2 386 682 555.9167 1111.833
3 504 1186 555.9167 1667.75
4 714 1900 555.9167 2223.667
5 810 2710 555.9167 2779.584
6 1154 3864 555.9167 3335.5
7 746 4610 555.9167 3891.417
8 1158 5768 555.9167 4447.334
9 348 6116 555.9167 5003.25
10 150 6266 555.9167 5559.167
11 223 6489 555.9167 6115.084
12 182 6671 555.9167 6671
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• On graph

Cummulative Flow Rate 8000

7000
6000
Storage Capacity
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0 3 6 9 12
Month
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Month cum. Disch CUM.Demand resrvior draft

1 296 555.9167 -259.917
2 682 1111.833 -429.833
3 1186 1667.75 -481.75
4 1900 2223.667 -323.667
5 2710 2779.584 -69.5835
6 3864 3335.5 528.4998
7 4610 3891.417 718.5831
8 5768 4447.334 1320.666
9 6116 5003.25 1112.75
10 6266 5559.167 706.833
11 6489 6115.084 373.9163
12 6671 6671 -0.0004

• Reservoir capacity = 1320.67-(-481.75)= 1802.417Mm3

 II. Sequent peak methods
• The sequent peak algorithm is a simple and straight forward analytical procedure, for
computing reservoir capacity, and is used as an excellent alternative to the mass curve
method of determining reservoir capacity.
• The demand rate is usually not a straight line (as assumed in mass curve analysis), since
the demand (out flow) generally becomes non-uniform due to seasonal variations in the
demand.
• Used for constant or varying demands.
• Find the maximum cumulative deficit over adjacent sequences of deficit periods and
determine the maximum of these cumulative deficits.
• The inflow sequence is assumed to repeat and the analysis is carried out over two cycles
(when necessary).
• Two cycles are required in case the critical period lies towards the end of an inflow
sequence.
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• Let t denote the time period and Kt be defined as follows
• Kt = Kt-1+Rt-Qt …………..if positive
=0 …………..otherwise

Where Rt is the required release or demand in period t

Qt is inflow
o K0 set equal to zero (K0 = 0)
o Kt may be expressed conveniently as
o Kt =max(0, Kt-1+Rt-Qt)
o Kt values are computed for each time period for two successive cycles of inflow sequence.
• Let K* = Max {Kt} over all t, then K* is the required active storage capacity of the reservoir
• If the value of Kt is zero at the end of the last period of first cycle, then computations over the
second cycle are not necessary
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• This happens when the critical period is entirely contained in the first cycle.
• Beyond a time period t for which the value of Kt is exactly same as that in the first cycle for
the corresponding period, then also the computations can be terminated.
• Example – 1:
 Determine the required capacity of a reservoir whose inflows and demands over a 6-period
sequence are as given below.

Period, t 1 2 3 4 5 6
Inflow, Qt 4 8 7 3 2 0

Demand, Rt 5 0 5 6 2 6

 Total inflows = total demand = 24 units

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• Solution: the computation is performed as in the following table
t Rt Qt Kt-1 Kt = Kt-1+ Rt -
Qt
Kt = Max [ 0, Kt–1 + Rt – Qt]
1 5 4 0 1
2 0 8 1 0
3 5 7 0 0
4 6 3 0 3
5 2 2 3 3
6 6 0 3 9
1 5 4 9 10
2 0 8 10 2 Reservoir capacity = Max {Kt} = 10
3 5 7 2 0
4 6 3 0 3
5 2 2 3 3
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• Alternatively, it is possible to use in tabular form as follows. the values of L (I - O) can be
more easily computed by first computing +ve and-ve values of (I-O), as in col (4) & (5) of
Table below; I-O SUM(I-O)

Demand, +ve value -ve value Cumulativ cumulative

Period, t Inflow, Qt Rt excess(Mm3) deficit(Mm3) e excess deficit
1 4 5 1 1
2 8 0 8 8
3 7 5 2 10
4 3 6 3 3
5 2 2 0 0
6 0 6 6 6
* Max. of all the values in col (6) & (7) is reqd
storage capacity
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