Free surface flow

We can develop a theory of flood propagation from the Saint Venant equations (Abbott, 1979; Cunge et al., 1980) for gradually varying flow in open channels: Conservation of momentum:
(1)

Conservation of mass:
(2)

The Saint-Venant equations consist of a number of terms, especially the dynamic equation. This equation can be simplified in certain circumstances that are particular to floods in a river. To do this we make a scale analysis on the terms in the dynamic equation. Suppose we have a (small) river that has dimensions:

where B = Top width of the channel, n = Mannings roughness coefficient, S0 = channel bed slope, g = acceleration due to gravity, A = cross-sectional area, Q = discharge, y = depth of flow q = lateral inflow and t = time. The superposition of a bar above a variable denotes the scale for that variable . With this data compare the magnitudes of the terms in the Saint Venant equations:

We can conclude, in this case, that the momentum of the flow in the river is governed primarily by the bottom and friction slopes, and is modified by the water surface slope, which is defined relative to the bottom slope of the channel the acceleration and convection of momentum terms can be ignored the contribution to the momentum in the main channel from tributaries and lateral inflow can also be ignored the lateral inflow from small tributaries and direct runoff can be significant under snow-melt conditions, but in general its effect is small the length scale of a flood wave is considerably greater than the lengths of most rivers. If we ignore the inertial terms (the local acceleration and convection of momentum) then we obtain
(3)

We now have a advection-diffusion equation. The equation has the remarkable property of having only Q as the primary dependent variable within the differentials. It is still, however, a function of the dependent variable h (or A), and therefore the equation is incomplete without the mass balance equation (Eq 2). Note that the advection speed and diffusion coefficients are given by
(4) (5)

Four boundary conditions are needed to solve Eq (2) and (3): Initial condition Q(x,0)=Q0(x) Initial condition h(x,0)=h0(x) Upstream condition Q(0,t)=Qu(t) Downstream condition Q(x,t)=f (h(x,t)) say

The non-inertial equation clearly indicates that there is a translation/advection process occurring in terms of the disturbance of the flow, and there is a corresponding diffusion associated with it. These processes underlie the basic equations. The pair of equations can be solved numerically using, say, the Priessman 4 point finite difference scheme.

References Cunge, J.A., Holly, F.M., and Verwey, A. (1980) Practical aspects of computational river hydraulics. Iowa State Univ. Press. Abbott, M.B. (1979). Computational hydraulics; elements of the theory of free surface flows, Pitman, London