FLOW ROUTING

LECTURE 14

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 Flow Routing Q

(Flood Routing) t

Q
ROUTING is defined as: The
procedure to determine the
flow hydrograph at a point
t
on a watershed from a
known hydrograph upstream Q
 Given the flow at upstream
point, routing can be used
to find the flow at
downstream point. t
 As the hydrograph travels, it Q
 attenuates (if no tributary joins)
 gets delayed
t 2
APPLICATIONS OF FLOW (or FLOOD)
ROUTING
Q

t
Following might be the uses of flow/flood routing:
 To predict flood propagation
 Studying the attenuation of flood peaks
 To actuate (issue) flood warning and protection systems
 To design various hydraulic structures and hydro-systems operations
 Storage routing

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Types of flow routing

 Lumped/hydrologic Routing
 Flow is calculated as a function of time alone at a
particular location
 Governed by CONTINUITY EQUATION and
flow/storage relationship
 HEC-HMS may be used for hydrologic routing
 Distributed/hydraulic Routing
 Flow is calculated as a function of space and time
throughout the system
 Governed by CONTINUITY AND MOMENTUM
equations
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 HEC-RAS may be used for hydraulic routing
FLOW ROUTING: Why Flood Wave
Changes as it moves down?
 As discharge in a channel increases, its stage also increases and
with it the volume of water in temporary storage in the channel,
thus causing an attenuated (reduced) peak at downstream
gauges.
 As the discharge in Channel reduces, the temporary storage
contribute water in channel, this causing a larger base flow at
downstream gauges.
 Flood may be considered as wave moving down a channel, appears
to have lengthened its base time and peak gets attenuated

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FLOW ROUTING

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 STORAGE EQUATION FOR HYDROLOGIC
ROUTING

 The continuity equation used in hydrologic routing (for channels and reservoirs) may be
expressed as :
I: inflow rate, m3/s
or O: outflow rate, m3/s
S: storage, m3
T: time, sec
All terms are defined for a Specific Reach
 To provide a more convenient form for hydrologic routing, (length) of a stream
it is commonly (river)
assumed that flows
between two time steps (times t1 and t2 the beginning and end of the routing period) are varying
linearly, and the average of the flows represents the flow. Thus equation is written as:

 Most storage-routing methods are based on this equation, in which I1 ,I2 , S1, and O1 are known but
S2 and O2 are unknown
 So there are two unknowns and one equation. This is the major difficulty in storage (or
reservoir) routing
 So another relation is necessary and usually it is Storage vs outflow (discharge) equation or
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graph
 DETERMINATION OF STORAGE
 Before a relation in storage and flow can be established, it is necessary to
compute volume (or storage) in the channel or in reservoir at various times
 Obvious method of determining this storage is to calculate volumes in channel
from cross sections by using PRISMOIDAL formula.
 Use of Prismoidal method for a number of sections, and for a series of different
time, with different water levels is hectic and time consuming.
 An alternate method is to calculate Storage from observed Inflow and Outflow
data using Storage equation
 Storage for Reservoirs is computed from CONTOUR Sheets of the reservoirs.
Area enclosed by each contour is calculated using Planimeter/graph/gis. Average
area between two contours multiplied by the contour interval gives volume of
reservoir between two levels. The volume is computed by adding all the
individual volumes. 8
Reservoir Routing

 In Reservoirs (especially the ungated reservoirs), the discharge (outflow) is function of

Water Surface Elevation. Thus reservoirs Routing is simplest of all routings.
 So in Reservoir Routing, the 2nd equation (in addition to Storage Equation) is obtained
from Storage vs Elevation Vs Discharge Curves, usually available for each reservoir
(Fig. 9-8 in Linsley).
 For certain Discharge, find Elevation, and then find Storage, then calculate 2S/dT +O,
and plot it against Outflow O.
Storage

e
ag
Elevation

Discharge
arge

or
vs

St
D i sc h

vs
El e v

ev
El

sO
+ Ov
dt
2S/
9
Discharge, 2S/dt + O
Reservoir Routing

 Continuity equation can be written as:

All parameters on left hand side of above equation are known, and so is found.
Using graph between vs O graph, Outflow (O) is obtained.
The above procedure repeated for next time step and so on, till all outflows are
computed.

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DETERMINATION OF STORAGE for
Channels

 The storage between the channel bed and line parallel to it is called PRISM
STORAGE
 Between this line and actual water profile is called WEDGE STORAGE
 During rising stages a considerable volume may consist of these wedges
before any large outflow occurs
 As the falling starts inflow drops more rapidly than outflow negative wedge
storage may exist

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MUSKINGUM STORAGE EQUATION for CHANNEL
ROUTING

 To correct the problem of two unknowns in the storage equation there

are a few analytical techniques. One of them is Muskingum’s storage
equation
]-------------(1)
Where a and n are constants from the mean stage-discharge relation for
the reach
Q=a.Hn
And b and m are constant in mean stage-storage relation
S=b.Hm
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MUSKINGUM STORAGE EQUATION

 Constant x expresses the relative importance of inflows and outflows in determining the storage. Its value is
high if Wedge Storage is Significant (e.g. in channels) and it is zero if wedge storage is insignificant (e.g. for
reservoirs).
 For natural streams x value ranges from 0-0.3 with mean value 0.2
 Muskingum’s method assumes that m/n =1 and lets b/a=K
 Equation 1 then becomes

S=K[x.I +(1-x)O] ------------- (2) S2-S1=K[x.(I2-I1) +(1-x)(O2-

O1]
 Constant K, known as STORAGE CONSTANT, it is the time of travel of flood wave through the reach, it is the
ratio of storage to discharge and has the dimensions of time
 It is approximately equal to time of travel of peak flow through the reach and in absence of data K is
estimated this way

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MUSKINGUM STORAGE EQUATION

 Storage equation

 The above storage equation when substituted for the value of S from equation (2) and
simplified gives following equation

O2 = co .I2 + c1 .I1 + c2 .O1

---------------(3)
Where
In these equations t is the routing period
in the same time units as of K

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MUSKINGUM STORAGE EQUATION

 Once values of K, x and t are established these coefficients can

(Co, C1, C2) can be computed
 The sum of these parameters must be positive (equal to one) in
order to get valid solutions from equation
 Routing operation is simply a solution of the equation (3) with
the O2 of one routing period becoming the O1 of the succeeding
period.
 Muskingum’s method assumes K to be constant at all flows.
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NUMERICAL PROBLEM

 For the given inflow hydrograph compute outflow hydrograph if K is 2 days and x being
0.2
 Routing period is one day. Initial outflow may be taken as 4000 m 3/s
Time Q(m3/s) Outflo
(days) w
1, t1 4000,I1 4000,
O1
2,t2 7000, I2 O2
3 11000 O2
4 15000
5 8000
6 4000 16
NUMERICAL PROBLEM

 Step1. knowing the values of K, x and t compute the values of coefficients

Use this equation for each interval to get outflow for the corresponding time
O2 = co .I2 + c1 .I1 + c2 .O1

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DETERMINATION OF MUSKINGUM’S CONSTANTS: K
and x

 If the flow data is unavailable K is estimated by travel time in the reach. And x is taken
between 0-0.3 (zero for reservoir like channel, and 0.3 where wedge storage is
relatively significant as compared to prism storage)
 But when the past flood data is available K and x are determined by plotting a graph
between S and xI+(1-x)O
 The best value of x is that, which causes the data to plot most nearly as a single
valued curve/line. The slope of this straight line is K.

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NUMERICAL PROBLEM
 Given record of past floods. Use these observations to obtain the Muskingum routing
parameters k and x for this river reach. The initial storage in the system is 715,000 m 3

Time (hr) Inflow Outflow Time (hr) Inflow Outflow

(m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s)

1 93 85 11 634 642
2 137 91 12 571 635
3 208 114 13 477 603
4 320 159 14 390 546
5 442 233 15 329 479
6 546 324 16 247 413
7 630 420 17 184 341
8 678 509 18 134 274
9 691 578 19 108 215
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10 675 623 20 90 170
 The graphical procedure consists in generating graphs of [xI + (1-x)O] vs. S for
different values of x, arbitrarily selected such that 0 < x < 0.5. The optimal value
of x is selected as that which produces the narrowest and straightest loop graph of [xI
+ (1-x)O] vs. S. The slope of the least squares linear fit to the resulting points is the
estimate of k.
 Generate accumulated storage in the system. Use continuity equation as follows:

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Inflow Outflow Avg. Inflow Avg. Outflow Cumm. Weighted
(m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) Storage (m3) average Flow
(m3/s)
I1 O1 - -
I2 O2 =(I1 +I2)/2 =(O1 +O2)/2 (Col.3-Col.4)x t x.Col1+(1-
+ previous x).Col2
storage
I3 O3 =(I2 +I3)/2 =(O2 +O3)/2
I4 O4 =(I3 +I4)/2 =(O3 +O4)/2

Assume different values of x in the range (0-0.3) and plot graph between
column 5 and column 6.
Whichever trial of x gives the graph to be a close to single line select that x 21
and slope of that line is K
Practice Problem

 For the given inflow hydrograph compute outflow hydrograph if K is 28 hours and x
being 0.33
 Routing period is six hours. Initial outflow may be taken as 31 m 3/s
Time Q(m3/s) Time Q(m3/s) Time Q(m3/s)
(hours) (hours) (hours)
0 31 54 95 114 24
60 79 120 23
6 50
66 65 126 22
12 86
72 55
18 123 78 46
24 145 84 40
90 35
30 150
96 31 22
36 144
102 27
Practice Problem
 Given record of past floods. Use these observations to obtain the Muskingum routing
parameters k and x for this river reach. The initial storage in the system is zero.

Time (hr) Inflow Outflow Time (hr) Inflow Outflow Time (hr) Inflow Outflow
(m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s)

0 22 22 60 59 85 120 19 22
6 23 21 66 47 86 126 18 19
12 35 21 72 39 80
18 71 26 78 32 73
24 103 34 84 28 64
30 111 44 90 24 54
36 109 55 96 22 44
42 100 66 102 21 36
48 86 75 108 20 30
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54 71 82 114 19 25
Thanks

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Prismoidal Formula

Ref: https://www.slideshare.net/gauravhtandon1/volume-28486423
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