HYDRAULIC CONSTRUCTION 2

&
RIVER ENGINEERING

ENSTP – Yaoundé, Cameroun

Academic Year 2020 - 2021
 INFORMATION ON THE COURSE
Prof. Tommaso Trentin
tommaso.trentin@unipd.it

Course from June 21st to July 18th, 2021.

Timetable: Monday to Thursday videos available on Moodle @ 14:30 (GMT+1)

Friday live session on Zoom* (Questions&Answers session and
exercises)

Moodle page: https://elearning.unipd.it/engineeringforafrica/course/view.php?id=287

Examination: written test with 3 exercises and 3 questions on the theory.

Recommended books:
1. Chow, “Open-channel Hydraulics”, McGraw-Hill
2. Chow, Maidment and Mays, “Applied Hydrology”, McGraw-Hill
3. Novak, Moffato, Nalluri and Narayanan, “Hydraulic Structures”, Taylor & Francis

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 COURSE CONTENTS

• Aims and design of hydraulic structures;

• Elements of hydrology: hydrological cycle; collection and analysis of data;

geometrical representation of hydrological basins and of rivers; rainfall data
analysis; flood models.

• Hydraulic of canals, rivers and mountain streams.

• Bed-load transport; check dams; riverbank stabilization and protection; stream

junctions; levee design and other river improvements; scouring; diversion
works; bridges and culverts.

• Hydroelectric plants: dam regulation, weir and barrages; energy dissipation;

diversion works; canals and hydraulic tunnels.

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 HYDRAULIC WORK
Set of elements that have the ultimate function of containing / conveying a prefixed
quantity of water, resisting to the stresses related to this function and transferring the
same stresses as those associated to their own weight to the environment (soil) on which
the whole structure is placed

Knowledge from different fields: hydraulics, structural mechanics and geotechnical

engineering (and topography, geology, material technology, ...)

A hydraulic work comes from the need to use or to adjust quantities that vary according to
natural laws, identifying (and accepting) the risk that a choice related to a specific design
event involves

Dam Gates Pump station

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 KINDS OF HYDRAULIC WORKS
Hydraulic works to protect against flooding:
I. Urban drainage;
II. Rural drainage;
III. Mountain enviromental maintenance;
IV. Flood mitigation action

Hydraulic works to manage water resources:

I. Water supply system;
II. Hydroelectric plants;
III. Water treatment plants;
IV. Inland waterways

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CHECK DAM AND DISSIPATION BASIN (~1930)

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WOOD AND STONE CHECK DAM

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STONE BOTTOM SILL

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 LOWLAND LEVEE PROBLEMS

Landslide of a levee near

Bresciello (Po river) July
1995

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FLOODING EVENTS AND BRIDGE INTERACTIONS

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EXAMPLE OF TAINTER GATE
EXAMPLE OF TAINTER GATE
 RISK ANALYSIS
Hydraulic works  probabilistic approach to design (eg. return time)

Risk analysis:
R = PD = P*Val*Vul
P = probability that the damage happens
D = damage
Val = value of the resource at risk
Vul = vulnerability

4 risk classes:
• Moderate R1: social, economic and environmental damages of marginal value;
• Medium R2: not relevant damage to buildings, infrastructure and environment;
• Elevated R3: risk for people's safety, damage to buildings, disruption of social and
economic activities, etc.;
• Very high R4: possible loss of lives and serious damage to the infrastructure,
social, wealth and so on.
 RISK ANALYSIS

Risk mitigation

Isorisk curve
From a (R3) to b (R2) or c(R2)

From a to b  damage reduction (urbanistic regulation: eg, reduction of the resources

vulnerability)
From a to c  probability of danger reduction (eg, structural project)

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 DESIGN APPROACH

The design approach must guarantee the quality of the construction and its
correspondence to:
• purpose/objective of the work;
• compliance to enviromental law;
• observance of the law.

Three level of design approach:

1. preliminary concept development;
2. concept refinement design;
3. final design documentation.

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 DESIGN APPROACH

PRELIMINARY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT (Technical and Economic Feasibility)

Defines the qualitative and functional characteristics of the works, the complete picture of
the needs of the specific services to be provided - identifies the dimensions, volumes,
typological, functional and technological characteristics of the works to be carried out
(surveys)

CONCEPT REFINEMENT DESIGN

fully identifies the work to be carried out in accordance with the preliminary concept and
contains all the necessary elements for the issue of the necessary authorizations and
approvals - studies and investigations are developed to the level useful to allow
preliminary calculations of the structures and facilities and the development of the bill of
quantities

FINAL DESIGN DOCUMENTATION

prepared in accordance with the previous, defines in every detail the works to be done
and its cost - must be developed to a standard of definition such as to allow the
identification of each element in the form, type, quality, size and price - as additional
document requires the maintenance schedule of the works involved in the design
activities
 WATER CYCLE
Not all precipitation contributes to the flow rate.

BALANCE EQUATION:
𝑷𝑷 = 𝑷𝑷𝒆𝒆 + 𝑬𝑬𝑽𝑽𝑻𝑻 + (𝑰𝑰 + 𝑺𝑺)

P = Precipitation
Pe= effective precipitation
EVT = Evapotranspiration
I = Infiltration
S = Storage
in the HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

 Which ones and how do we

measure these parameters?
 How do we impose the
boundary condition?

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HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

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MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS (1)

To record the precipitation the rain-gauge is

used.
The amount of measured precipitation depends
on the exposure to the wind and also on the
height of the surrounging objects. A poor
exposure should be avoided.

Tipping bucket

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 MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS (2)
The water level in a river can be measured by:

Ultrasonic sensor Hydrometrograph

hydrometric zero

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 MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS (2)
The water level in a river can be measured by:

Ultrasonic sensor Hydrometrograph

hydrometric zero

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MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS (3)

Measured stream flow:

𝑄𝑄 = � 𝑣𝑣̅ 𝑖𝑖 � 𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖
𝑖𝑖

𝑣𝑣 = 𝐶𝐶1 ∙ 𝑛𝑛 + 𝐶𝐶2

v [m/s] measured flow velocity

n [1/s] propeller rpm
Hydrometric reel
C1 [m] Calibrated
C2 [m/s] parameter

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 RATING CURVE

Measured water levels yi and stream

flow Qi are used to calibrate the rate
curve of a river for the section where
the measurements occur.
𝑄𝑄 = 𝑐𝑐 ∙ 𝑦𝑦 𝛼𝛼

2
Measured values for large Qi - yi lack. 𝑄𝑄 = 𝐾𝐾𝑆𝑆 ∙ 𝑅𝑅𝐻𝐻3∙ 𝐴𝐴 ∙ 𝑖𝑖
= 𝑐𝑐 ′ ∙ 𝑓𝑓 𝑦𝑦
We adopt a strong extrapolation of
Uniform flow condition
the data when we use the rating
curve for extreme events 𝑄𝑄 = 𝑐𝑐 ′ ∙ 𝑓𝑓 𝑦𝑦 + 𝑄𝑄0

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HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

Cartographic information to know the topography, the

drainage network, the closure section…
• National cartography
http://www.inc.ayoos.com/index.php
• Digital elevation model (GIS software)
https://data.humdata.org/dataset/cameroon-elevation-
model

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 HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

Basin is described through:

- Dimensions:
• big basin: flood wave increase and decrease is
slow
• Small basin: flood wave increase and decrease is fast
- Watershed lines
- Drainage network: lenght, density…
- Perimeter
- Soil use
- …
It is necessary to know:
- the surface S
- The lenght of the drainage network L
- The perimeter P

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 GEOMETRIC COEFFICIENTS

 Basin shape coefficients:

𝐿𝐿 𝐿𝐿 𝐿𝐿
𝐹𝐹𝐿𝐿 = = = 0,89
𝐷𝐷 2 𝑆𝑆⁄𝜋𝜋 𝑆𝑆
𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃
𝐹𝐹𝑃𝑃 = = = 0,28
𝐶𝐶 2 𝜋𝜋𝜋𝜋 𝑆𝑆

 Drainage density:
1
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = � 𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑖
𝑆𝑆 𝑖𝑖

 Basin mean slope:

∆𝑧𝑧
𝑖𝑖𝑚𝑚 = � 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 � 𝑆𝑆𝑖𝑖 �� 𝑆𝑆𝑖𝑖 = � 𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑖
𝑖𝑖 𝑖𝑖 𝑆𝑆 𝑖𝑖

Note: FL ≈ 1 implies that the basin has gathered shape whereas FP >> 1 implies that the
basin has elongated shape.

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 STECHER CHART
The Stecher chart represents the surface extention as fuction of the distance between
the more upstream section and the section considered
The Stecher chart says which
ones between right and left
basins mostly contribute to
the Q peak

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 IPSOGRAPHIC CURVE

The surface extention S of the basin as function of the basin level z is shown in
the ipsographic curve.

The mean level of the basin is given by:

1
𝐻𝐻𝑚𝑚 = � 𝑆𝑆𝑖𝑖 � 𝑧𝑧𝑖𝑖 Useful to evaluate the concentration time of the basin tc
𝑆𝑆 𝑖𝑖

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 HYDRODYNAMIC CHART (1)
The hydrodynamic chart represents basin extension S as function of the river section
level.

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 HYDRODYNAMIC CHART (2)

It is useful to estimated (preliminarly) the maximum power extracted from the

basin

𝑃𝑃 ∝ 𝑄𝑄 ∙ ∆ℎ

Proportional to the surface S jump depends on the section chosen

E.g. In figure the dashed area represents the power P that may be extracted from the
basin related to the level z = 1123 m a.s.l. The area is equal to S=66 km2 and the jump
is Δh = 384 m. The stream flow per unit area is assumed equal to q = 30÷35 l/(s∙km2).

𝑄𝑄 = 𝑞𝑞 ∙ 𝑆𝑆 = 32.5 ∙ 10−3 ∙ 66 = 2.15 m3/s

𝑃𝑃 = 𝛾𝛾 ∙ 𝑄𝑄 ∙ ∆ℎ = 9.81 ∙ 2.15 ∙ 384 = 8100 kW

𝐸𝐸 = 𝑃𝑃 ∙ 24 ∙ 365 = 71 ∙ 106 kWh/year

 REPRESENTATION OF THE RIVER COURSE
We need of some river representations:
 Plans
 Sections
 Profile of the river

Planimetric representation
It shows in plan the area of interest. The elements that have to appear are:
• Contour lines or heights of the main point of the area
• Scale (numerical and graphical) of the plans
• Site where the topographic sections of the river are measured

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