Tut Sheet 10
CEL251 Hydrology: Surface Flow – Floods & Flood Routing
Problem 1 A catchment of area 120 ha has a time of concentration of 30 min and runoff
coefficient of 0.3. If a storm of duration 45 min results in 3.0 cm of rain over the catchment,
estimate the resultant peak flow rate.
Duration of rainfall, t > Time of concentration
0.03 3
Therefore Q p = CiA = 0.3 × × 120 × 10 4 m
(30 × 60) s
Problem 2 A basin is divided by 1-h isochrones into four sub-areas of size 200, 250, 350, and
470 ha from the upstream end to the outlet. A rainfall event of 5-h duration with intensities of
1.7 cm/h for the first 2-h and 1.25 cm/h for the next 3-h occurs uniformly over the basin.
Assuming a constant runoff coefficient of 0.5, estimate the peak rate of runoff.
Solution:
Area IV – 200 ha
tc = 4hrs
Area III – 250 ha
tc = 3hrs
Area II – 350 ha
tc = 2hrs
Area I – 170 ha
tc = 1hr
First rainfall event of 1.7cm/hr occurs for 2 hrs and second rainfall event of 1.25 cm/hr occurs
for 3 hrs. Consider Area I – 170 ha with time of concentration, tc = 1hr. First rainfall event
from Area I will reach the outlet in 1hr. First rainfall event from area II will reach the outlet
in 2hrs. Till 2hrs, no contribution will occur from area III and IV to the outlet. The
contribution from individual areas and the respective rainfall events are shown below.
Time from Rainfall event (cm/hr) contributing to outlet from Flow rate at outlet
start (m3/s)
(hrs)
Area I Area II Area III Area IV CiA =
170 ha 350 ha 250 ha 200 ha 0.5*intensity*area
0 - - - - -
1 1.7 - - - 4.01
2 1.7 1.7 - - 12.27
3 1.25 1.7 1.7 - 17.11
4 1.25 1.25 1.7 1.7 19.65
5 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.7 18.10
6 - 1.25 1.25 1.25 13.89
7 - - 1.25 1.25 7.81
8 - - - 1.25 3.47
Peak flow = 19.65 m3/s
Problem 3 Estimate the peak discharge rate at a stream location if base flow is 42.5 m3/s and
the details of the runoff contribution factors are as follows:
Catchment Runoff Catchment Time of Rainfall Rainfall
Part coefficient Area (ha) Concentration Time depth
A 0.50 600 1h 0–1h 25.0 mm
B 0.70 750 2h 1–2h 50.0 mm
C 0.80 1000 3h 2–3h 50.0 mm
D 0.85 1200 4h 3–4h 23.5 mm
Solution:
Runoff coefficient for rainfall falling on Area A = 0.5
Runoff coefficient for rainfall falling on Area B will have to pass Area A also to reach the
outlet = (0.5*600+0.7*750) / (600+750), taking weighted average = 0.6111
Similarly,
Runoff coefficient for rainfall falling on Area C = (0.5*600+0.7*750+0.8*1000) /
(600+750+1000) = 0.6915
Runoff coefficient for rainfall falling on Area D = (0.5*600+0.7*750+0.8*1000+0.85*1200)
/ (600+750+1000+1200) = 0.7451
Time Rainfall event (mm/hr) contributing to outlet from Flow rate at
from (Respective runoff coefficients are shown in paranthesis) outlet (m3/s)
start
(hrs) Area A Area B Area C Area D CiA + 42.5
0 - - - - -
1-2 25 (0.5) - - -
2-3 50 (0.5) 25(0.6111) - -
3-4 50 (0.5) 50(0.6111) 25(0.6915) -
4-5 23.5 (0.5) 50(0.6111) 50(0.6915) 25(0.7451) 283.87
5-6 - 23.5(0.6111) 50(0.6915) 50(0.7451) 292.64
6-7 - - 23.5(0.6915) 50(0.7451)
7-8 - - - 23.5(0.7451)
Problem 4 Find the peak discharge at the outlet of a catchment of area 400 ha by Dickens
formula and Ryves formula. Assume that for the given catchment site Dicken’s constant = 14
and Ryves constant = 10.
Hint:
Use the formulae below:
Dickens formula: Q p = C D A 3 / 4
Ryves formula: Q p = C R A 2 / 3
Problem 5 The storage, elevation and outflow data of a reservoir are given below:
Elevation (m) 299.5 300.2 300.7 301.2 301.7 302.2 302.7
3
Discharge (m /s) 0 0 15 40 75 115 160
6 3
Storage (10 × m ) 4.8 5.5 6.0 606 7.2 7.9 8.8
The spillway crest is at elevation 300.2 m. The following flood flow is expected into the
reservoir:
Time (h) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27
3
Discharge (m /s) 10 20 52 60 53 43 32 22 16 10
Route the flood to obtain the outflow hydrograph if the reservoir water level is 300.0 m at the
commencement of the inflow.
Hint: Refer the example shown in the lecture ppt and apply the same concept
Problem 6 The inflow hydrograph to a river reach is as follows (Time in h and Inflow in m3/s):
Time
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
1
9
Inflow
137
208
320
442
546
630
678
691
675
634
571
477
390
329
247
184
134
108
93
Determine the outflow hydrograph from this reach if K = 2.3 h, X = 0.15, and initial outflow 90
= 85 m3/s.
Hint: Refer the example shown in the lecture ppt and apply the same concept