Cress Help - Flow - Open channel flow - A18.4

Equilibrium depth, roughness known 

If an equilibrium depth must be substituted for h (if backing up are negligible), this can be determined with the following formulas. If the equilibrium depth in unknown this can be determined by the following iterative method from:

When the roughness C is unknown the equilibrium depth can be estimated with the aid of two water depth measurements hx-Δx and hx+Δx and the equation of Bélanger, if hx/B << 1 :

in which:

B: breath of the flow profile (by approximation: water level) [m]
he: equilibrium depth [m]
hg: limit depth [m]
hx: Width at average water depth at location x [m]
hx+Δx: width at average water depth at location x+Δx [m]
hx-Δx: width at average water depth at location x-Δx [m]
ib: slope of the bottom [-]

The value for C can then again be determined from the previous equation.

Following this:

For the limit depth (critical flow; Froude-number = 1) :