Solution set for Final Exam: Engineering Hydrology
Q1. Give a brief explanation on the following points (10 marks)
A. Define Flood routing? State the two common flood routing methods ( 1 marks )
Flood Routing is the process of determining the hydrograph at a location downstream of a
reservoir or a channel section from the knowledge of the upper stream inflow
OR
Flow routing is a mathematical procedure for predicting the changing magnitude, speed, and
shape of a flood wave as a function of time at one or more points along a watercourse (waterway
or channel).
B. What is S-hydrograph and discuss how to derive this hydrograph. (2 marks)
S-hydrograph is a hydrograph produce by a continuous effective of rainfall at a constant rate for
an infinite period. It is a curve obtained by summation of an infinite series of D-hr unit
hydrographs spaced D-hr apart.
C. Give at least one method for estimation of ….
a. Open water body evaporation ( 1 mark)
Water budget, or Energy budget or any Empirical equations
b. Vegetative surface evapotranspiration (1 mark )
Penman–monteith method or Hargreaves method or Blaney–Criddle Formula or Empirical
formulation based on pan evaporation
D. Describe your understanding about ordinates of a D-hour unit hydrograph (2 mark )
The ordinates of the D-hour unit hydrograph are the amounts of direct runoff at different time
that resulting from one unit (1mm/1cm) of rainfall excess occurring uniformly over the basin and
at a uniform rate for specified D-hours duration.
E. Describe the possible application areas of Design flood? (2 marks)
a. To design of a spillway of a storage structure
b. To design a drainage structure (Bridge, Culverts,)
c. To understand extreme cases ( flood or drought) in a given region
Q2. Rainfall-Infiltration-Hydrograph- Flood routing-Flood frequency (20 marks)
A. Areal Rainfall ( 3 marks )
Time (hr) Gauge one (mm) Gauge Two (mm) Gauge Three (mm)
Area share (weight age ) 0.3 0.5 0.2 wiR
1 4 4 6 4.4
2 9 12 10 10.7
3 6 8 6 7
4 2 3 4 2.9
4 hr rainfall depth from the catchment 25
B. Excess Rainfall ( 3 marks )
Φ index = 0.25cm/hr for the total four hour time (0.25cm/hr *4hr = 1cm)
Total Rainfall depth for four hour = 25mm = 2.5cm
Rainfall excess = Total Rainfall depth - Φ index = 2.5cm -1cm = 1.5cm
C. Direct Runoff (4 marks )
Time (hr) 4h UH m3/s/cm Excess Rainfall (cm) Direct Runoff (DR) (m3/sec)
0 0 1.5 0
4 20 30
8 80 120
12 130 195
16 90 135
20 60 90
24 30 45
D. Flood Routing ( 5 marks )
Time INFLOW Avg. I avg I*ΔT S‐QΔT/2 S+QΔT/2 ELEVATION Q S
(hr) (m3/sec) (m3/sec) (mcm) (mcm) (mcm) (m) (m3/sec) (mcm)
0 0 102.000 11.000 3.500
15 0.216 3.421 3.637
4 30 102.224 12.789 3.545
75 1.080 3.453 4.533
8 120 105.361 40.610 4.240
157.5 2.268 3.948 6.216
12 195 110.120 102.480 5.478
165 2.376 4.740 7.116
16 135 111.446 107.785 6.340
112.5 1.620 5.564 7.184
20 90 111.546 108.185 6.405
67.5 0.972 5.626 6.598
24 45 110.683 104.733 5.844
E. Flood frequency ( 5 marks )
XT = 108.185
X T x Kσ
3
Xav = 60.73m /sec
σ = 47.08m3
KT = (XT – Xav )/ σ = (108.185- 60.73)/47.08 = 1.008
KT T T K
0.5772 ln ln ln ln ( T 0.5772) 1.870
6 T 1 T 1 6
T T
ln ln 1.870 1.167 T = 7 years
T 1 T 1
Q3. Stream Guage- - Flood routing (20 marks)
Rating curve (7 marks)
50 years Discharge at gauging station (3 marks)
Q= 61.615 (H-H0)1.012 Stage (m) 1.9
2.5 3.6 4.9 3
H0 = 1.7 Q (m3/sec) 12.08 49.16 118.00 200.03 80.36
Flood Routing to Bridge section (8 marks)
Channel 1 Channel 2 Possible
x= 0.2 K= 12 x= 0.15 K= 14 marking
t C1 C2 C3 C1 C2 C3
6hr 0.047619 0.4285714 0.52381 1 0.060403 0.342282 0.597315 1 2 mark
C1IJ+1 C2IJ C3QJ Q C1IJ+1 C2IJ C3QJ Q
12.08 12.80 12.8
49.16 2.34 5.18 6.70 14.22 0.86 4.38 7.65 12.89 4 marks
118.00 5.62 21.07 7.45 34.14 2.06 4.87 7.70 14.63
200.03 9.53 50.57 17.88 77.98 4.71 11.68 8.74 25.13
80.36 3.83 85.73 40.85 130.40 7.88 26.69 15.01 49.58
42.94 2.04 34.44 68.31 104.79 6.33 44.63 29.61 80.58 2 marks
6.59 0.31 18.40 54.89 73.61 4.45 35.87 48.13 88.44
0.00 0.00 2.82 38.56 41.38 2.50 25.19 52.83 80.52
The 50 year maximum flood at the Bridge section is 88.44m3/sec (2 marks)
Note for Instructors
When Q 3. Typed the phrase that informed the values of the event were missed. Thus the value for 50 years maximum
flow should be given to all.
The correct question was
As a design team member of Ejere-Gunde Meskel road design, you are expected to estimate the 50 years
maximum flow of the bridge section, where the road crossing Jemma River. The Hydrology Directorate at
Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy has a river flow measuring station at Robi-Jida, which is upstream of
the Bridge section. The discharge measurement with various stages at the gauging station and the stage
measurement for a 50 year maximum flow conditions are given in table 1 and 2 respectively. The channel
below the gauging station is characterized with two consecutive channels with different K and X coefficient that
given in table 3