Example of locating a Hydraulic Jump
Problem
The spillway from a reservoir discharges into a rectangular channel that is 100m wide.
The flow at the bottom of the spillway is supercritical and has a very high velocity
hence erosive power. Some way downstream from the toe of the spillway a hydraulic
jump will occur, determine the distance from the toe of the spillway to the jump. This
will enable the determination of the length of channel for which some erosion
protection will be required.
The data fro the problem are:
Q = 200 m
3
/s Bed slope = 0.0035
Manning n = 0.025 Depth at toe of spillway = 0.175m
Width of channel =100m
Solution
We do not have any information regarding the channel downstream of the jump
therefore we shall assume that it is long and has the same value of Mannings n as the
reach immediately downstream of the spillway.
Since the channel is long the depth downstream of the jump will be normal depth
therefore this must be determined from the uniform flow equation:
mi AC Q =
In our case, since we are using the Manning formula for roughness, we need to adjust
this by putting C = m
1/6
/n, giving
i
n
m
A Q
3 / 2
=
Therefore
0035 . 0
025 . 0
2 100
100
100 200
3 / 2
+
=
n
n
n
d
d
d
To solve this for d
n
we can use some methodical iterative scheme, like a fixed point
iteration, the bisection method or Newton-Raphson. Although it is often quickly done
by trial and error
First rearrange to give a function f(d
n
) = 0
1
( )
( ) 0
2 100
100
66 . 23 200
0 0035 . 0
025 . 0
2 100
100
100 200
3 / 2
3 / 2
=
+
=
=
+
=
n
n
n n
n
n
n n
d
d
d d f
d
d
d d f
Try d
n
= 0.5, this gives f(d
n
) = 125.9
Try d
n
= 1.0, this gives f(d
n
) = -33.5
So the solution is between 0.5 and 1.0, and slightly nearer 1.0.
Try d
n
= 0.9, this gives f(d
n
) = 3.8
So the solution is between 0.9 and 1.0
Try d
n
= 0.91, this gives f(d
n
) = 0.194
This is sufficiently accurate for our calculation.
For interest, the fixed point iteration using this function,
+
=
3 / 2
2 100
100
66 . 23 200
n
n
n
d
d
d
produced the following solutions for each iteration starting with d
n
= 1.0:
dn
1
0.856386
0.947851
0.886911
0.926346
0.900331
0.91728
0.906146
0.91342
0.908651
0.911771
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
1.05
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
iteration count
d
n
As you can see this is not a very fast convergence to the solution.
So the solution is, normal depth d
n
= 0.91m
The channel is rectangular so the critical depth is given by
m
gb
Q
d
c
74 . 0
100 81 . 9
200
3
2
2
3
2
2
=
= =
Since d
n
> d
c
then the slope is mild.
2
We have to find the shape of the backwater curve from the spillway to the jump. This
can be achieved by integrating the backwater curve as shown in Table 1.
he method of integration used is the same as that worked out in the example of the
Slope 0.0035
n 0.025
Q 200
B 100
Initial d 0.175
dy 0.075
x d d_mean m_mean C_mean v_mean J_mean Fn_mean Dd/Dx Dx d_1=d_conj
(m) (m) (m) (m) (m/s) (m) (m)
0.00 0.175 2.072969
0.2125 0.211601 30.87779 9.411765 0.439069 42.49269 0.010497 7.144567
7.14 0.250 1.685415
0.2875 0.285856 32.46519 6.956522 0.16062 17.15843 0.009724 7.713081
14.86 0.325 1.429863
0.3625 0.359891 33.7356 5.517241 0.074318 8.559866 0.009368 8.006252
22.86 0.400 1.241782
0.4375 0.433705 34.80105 4.571429 0.039785 4.869191 0.009378 7.997396
30.86 0.475 1.094129
0.5125 0.5073 35.72214 3.902439 0.023525 3.02907 0.009869 7.599461
38.46 0.550 0.973336
0.5875 0.580677 36.53556 3.404255 0.014951 2.010793 0.011329 6.620181
45.08 0.625 0.87175
0.6625 0.653837 37.26532 3.018868 0.010037 1.402275 0.01625 4.615282
49.70 0.700 0.784677
0.7375 0.72678 37.92805 2.711864 0.007034 1.016494 0.214266 0.350031
50.05 0.775 0.709043
0.8125 0.799508 38.53575 2.461538 0.005103 0.760188 -0.006686
T
trapezoidal irrigation channel. Since the channel has a rectangular cross-section the
conjugate depth can be computed using the simple explicit expression:
1
8 1
1 1
Fn
d
+ + =
2
2
2 2 d
This conjugate depth is in the last column of table 1.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00
Conjugate depth line
flow profile from spillway
normal depth = 0.91m
Hydraulic jump position
d
e
p
t
h
(
m
)
distance, x (m)
3
