A practical method for analysis of river waves and for kinematic wave routing in natural channel networks
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abstract
The behaviour of river waves is described using a simplified dimensionless form of the momentum equation in conjunction with the continuity equation. Three dimensionless parameters were derived based on a quantitative linear analysis. These parameters, which depend on the Froude number of the steady uniform flow and the geometric characteristics of the river, permit quantification of the influence of inertia and pressure in the momentum equation. It was found that dynamic and diffusion waves occur mainly on gentle channel slopes and the transition between then is characterized by the Froude number. On the other hand, the kinematic wave has a wide range of applications. If the channel slope is greater than 1%, the kinematic wave is particularly suitable for describing the hydraulics of flow. Since slopes in natural channel networks are often greater than 1%, an analytical solution of the linearized kinematic wave equation with lateral inflow uniformly distributed along the channel is desirable and was therefore derived. The analytical solution was then implemented in channel routing module of an existing simple rainfall-runoff model. The results obtained using the analytical solution compared well with those obtained from a non-linear kinematic wave model. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.
