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FLOOD ROUTING

Dr. Vinay Chandwani

Executive Engineer (W)
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INTRODUCTION
HYDROGRAPH: Skewed distribution of discharge.
Response of a given catchment to a rainfall input.
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INTRODUCTION
• When a flood wave passes through a reservoir, its
peak is attenuated and the time base is enlarged
due to effect of storage (RESERVOIR ROUTING)
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INTRODUCTION
One section of the river to another section of
the river – long distance (CHANNEL
ROUTING)
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FLOOD ROUTING
As this flood hydrograph moves down the
river, its shape gets modified due to various
reasons, such as reservoir storage,
resistance, lateral addition or withdrawal of
flows etc.
“Flood routing is a technique of determining
the flood hydrograph at a section of a river
by utilizing the data of flood flow at one or
more upstream sections.”
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INTRODUCTION
• When a flood wave passes through a reservoir, its
peak is attenuated and the time base is enlarged
due to effect of storage (RESERVOIR ROUTING)
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FLOOD ROUTING (Categories)
• RESERVOIR ROUTING
• A flood wave when it passes through a water
reservoir, results in outflow hydrographs with
attenuated peaks & enlarged time bases .
• CHANNEL ROUTING
• Considers changes in the shape of input
hydrograph while flood waves pass through a
channel downstream.
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FLOOD ROUTING (Applications)
• Flood forecasting
• Ascertain the time required for flood to
reach a particular site location
(determination of lag time)
• Flood protection
• Determination of Max. Water Level (MWL)
• Reservoir design
• Design of spillway and outlet structures
• Length of spillway, design head over crest,
design of stilling basin
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RESERVOIR ROUTING
(Basic Equations)

Inflow I RESERVOIR Outflow O

STORAGE S
Difference between inflow and outflow dS
I Q 
rate is equal to the change in storage dt
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RESERVOIR ROUTING
(Basic Equations)

I t  Qt  S
 I1  I 2   Q1  Q2 
 t   t  S 2  S1
 2   2 
Suffixes 1 and 2 denote the beginning and end
of time interval Δt
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FLOOD ROUTING
(Modified Pul’s Method)
 I1  I 2   Q1  Q2 
 t   t  S 2  S1
 2   2 
 I1  I 2   Q1t   Q2 t 
 t   S1     S2  
 2   2   2 
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FLOOD ROUTING
(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
• The flood routing for reservoir is started at Full Tank
Level (F.T.L)
• A certain level of Maximum water level (M.W.L) is
assumed.
• Design head Hd =M.W.L-F.T.L
• Determine head of water above crest (H).
• Determine coefficient of discharge (Cd) for ratio
(H/Hd)
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FLOOD ROUTING
(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
• The effective length of spillway also effected by
head over crest H and contraction due to pier
and/or abutment. Leff=L-2*H(n*Kp+Ka)
[Ref: IS:6934]
• Discharge Q=Cd*Leff*H3/2
Water Head over H/Hd Cd Effective Q=Cd*Leff*H3/2
Elevation crest (H) length of
(m) spillway Leff
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(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
1078 DISCHARGE RATING CURVE

970

862

754

DISCHARGE (cumecs) 647

539

431

323

216

108

0
96 97 97 98 98 99

ELEVATION (metres)
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(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
CAPACITY ELEVATION CURVE
101

99
ELEVATION (metres)

97

95

93

91
0 2 4 6 8
CAPACITY (Mcum)
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(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
Routing Interval t=0.0036 Msec (1 Hour)

OUTFLOW
STORAGE
ELEVATION m DISCHARGE Q S+Q*t/2 S-Q*t/2
Mcum
cumecs
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(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
98.00
97.80
97.60
Elevation (m) 97.40
97.20
97.00
96.80
96.60
96.40
96.20
96.00
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
S+Q*t/2
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(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps

Inflow MEAN
ELEVATION Q
I INFLOW Imean*t S-Qt/2 S+Qt/2
Time cumecs Imean m cumecs
In hrs
 RESERVOIR ROUTING
(Modified Pul’s Method) Steps
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1. Routing is started from FTL where discharge Q is zero.

2. Find the value of (S-Q*t/2) corresponding to FTL.
3. Add this value of (S-Q*t/2) to Imean*t to get (S+Q*t/2)
4. Find the level of water and discharge for this value of
(S+Q*t/2)
5. Again find the value of (S-Q*t/2) for the next step by utilizing
the value of (S+Q*t/2) and Q of previous step using equation
[S-Q*t/2]=[S+Q*t/2]-Q*t
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5
7. Compute the max. discharge and level
8. If level for maximum discharge is equal to or less than
assumed M.W.L, then analysis is OK, otherwise increase
M.W.L.
 RESERVOIR ROUTING
(Modified Pul’s Method) Result
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FLOOD HYDROGRAPHS
2510
2259

DISCHARGE cumecs
2008 INFLOW
1757 ROUTED
1506
1255
1004
753
502
251
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140
TIME hrs
 CHANNEL ROUTING
Muskingham’s Method
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In reservoir routing we have seen that outflow

discharge was dependent on storage capacity of
reservoir. But in channel routing, the inflow and outflow
are both dependent on storage.

Muskingham equation provides a simple linear

equation for channel routing
 CHANNEL ROUTING
Muskingham’s Method
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(Basic Equations)
Q2  C0 I 2  C1 I1  C 2 Q1 Q1 is the outflow discharge
 Kx  0.5t for previous step
C0  I1 is the inflow discharge for
K  Kx  0.5t
previous step.
Kx  0.5t
C1  I2 is the inflow discharge for
K  Kx  0.5t current step.
K  Kx  0.5t K is the storage time
C2 
K  Kx  0.5t constant
C0  C1  C 2  1.0 x is weighing factor
 CHANNEL ROUTING
Muskingham’s Method
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(Result) 25000

Channel routed Flood for Parwan Pick Up weir

20000 Outflow from Parwan

Channel routed flood

15000

Discharge (Cumecs) 10000

5000

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time (hrs)
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EXERCISES