A research on the estimation of coefficient roughness in open channel applying entropy concept

Abstract

Manning’s roughness coefficient is one of the most important parameters in establishing the plan, design, operation, and maintenance of the water resource projects for hydraulic engineers, and since the worth of this value has a significant effect on the analysis of the water level and flow rate distribution, it is very important to carry out the calculation of flood stage, design of the stream/river structure, and safety assessment of the stream. Due to the importance of these factors, the calculation of objective and quantitative roughness coefficient has long drawn attention from researchers at home and abroad. Many studies have been conducted to estimate the roughness coefficient based on the actual measurements for various types of streams, such as gravel and sand streams, and many others have produced experience equation for various levels of materials and relative depth. Despite many of these efforts, the roughness coefficient uses constant values when applied to the actual model or real design. This application is a major source of error in simulating flood and unsteady flow. To solve these problems, good results were obtained by attempting to calculate the roughness coefficient applied with the entropy concept in open-channel flow. In particular, the proposed roughness coefficient based on the measurements taken from laboratories under conditions showed very similar to the actual stream flow which was found to be about the same as the value from the unsteady flow. Accordingly, the newly developed roughness coefficient equation, which is the result of this study, is a very practical one formula that can be applied to the flood flow of real natural streams. It can also be used as an alternative to make up for the disadvantages of the Manning’s roughness coefficient.