Discharge Estimation in Meandering Compound Channels based on Energy Concept

Abstract

The discharge in a compound meandering channel is greatly affected by the interaction between the flow in the main channel and the floodplains. In this paper, the apparent shear stress formulae were suitably modified, and the energy concept method (ECM) was applied for the prediction of discharges in meandering channels. The meandering compound channel was divided into three sub-areas, namely the main channel below the bankfull level, the meander belt width above the bankfull level and a region outside the meander belt above the bankfull level for estimating the total discharge. The new model is compared with a wide range of experimental data and the data available in the literature. The error analysis was carried out, and the results were presented. This method was found suitable for predicting discharges in channels having smooth floodplains but showed significant errors in channels with rough floodplains.