Characteristics of flow over the free overfall of triangular channel

Abstract

In the present paper, the effects of side slopes, bed slopes and bed roughness on the flow over free overfalls in triangular channels have been studied experimentally. For this purpose, three models of triangular channels with free overfalls have been constructed and fixed in a 6m length laboratory flume. These three models had length of 244cm with different values of side slopes (Z) (0.8(H):1(V), 1:1 and 1.33:1). Each one of these models had four different bed slopes (S) (0, 0.0041, 0.0082 and 0.0123). For each bed slope, the bed was roughened with three particle sizes of sand (ds) (1.18mm, 2.36mm, and 4.75mm). The experimental testing program included sixteen series of experiments for each model. Four of them were for smooth beds and twelve for rough beds. A total of forty eight experiments were tested for different rates of discharge (Q). Experimental results of all models showed that Froude number (Frb) of flow decreases with the increasing of end depth ratio values (yb/yc) for different bed roughness, different bed slopes. The relations between the brink depth (yb) and the critical depth (yc) were found to be a simple linear formula for various bottom slope and different bottom roughness. An empirical expression was obtained for the flow over the free overfall in triangular channels for different bed slopes and roughness. The results of the present study have been compared with studies were obtained by other investigators, the comparison shows a very good agreement between them.