At‐a‐station hydraulic geometry relations, 1: theoretical development |
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| Authors: | Vijay P Singh L Zhang |
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| Institution: | Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A & M University, Scoates Hall, 2117 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843‐2117, USA |
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| Abstract: | This paper, the first of two, hypothesizes that: (1) the temporal variation of stream power of a river channel at a given station with varying discharge is accomplished by the temporal variation in channel form (flow depth and channel width) and hydraulic variables, including energy slope, flow velocity and friction; (2) the change in stream power is distributed among the changes in flow depth, channel width, flow velocity, slope, and friction, depending on the boundary conditions that the channels has to satisfy. The second hypothesis is a result of the principle of maximum entropy and the theory of minimum energy dissipation or its simplified minimum stream power. These two hypotheses lead to families of at‐a‐station hydraulic geometry relations. The conditions under which these families of relations can occur in the field are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | energy dissipation rate exponents hydraulic geometry principle of maximum entropy resistance equations stream power theory of minimum variance tractive force theory weighting factors |
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