Flow discharge estimation in compound open channel using theoretical approaches

Estimating the value of discharge in water ways is an important factor in the flood controlling projects. Recently by advances in flood management, investigators have proposed to use the concept of compound section for modeling the flow characteristics in the natural waterways such as rivers. Several conceptual and theoretical approaches based on the idea of compound section have been proposed for estimating the discharge in rivers. In this study, the performances of the theoretical methods were assessed using performing series of experiments in straight prismatic compound open channel and also analyzing the published data in the literature. Analyzing the performance of theoretical methods shows that Divided Channel Method including vertical bounded line with the determination of coefficient (0.91) and root mean square error (0.02) is an accurate method through the theoretical approaches and only this method has suitable ability to apply for practical purposes. © 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.