Study of Shear Stress Distribution in a Compound Rectangular Section

Reliable prediction of boundary shear force distributions in open channel flow is crucial in many critical engineering problems such as channel design, calculation of energy losses and sedimentation. During floods, part of the discharge of a river is carried by the simple main channel and the rest is carried by the floodplains located to its sides. For such compound channels, the flow structure becomes complicated due to the transfer of momentum between the deep main channel and the adjoining floodplains that magnificently affects the shear stress distribution in floodplain and main channel sub sections. In the present study experiments were conducted in a compound rectangular section with different discharges and 3 different aspect ratios. The results showed that in each aspect ratio, shear stress increases by increasing the water level. It is also shown that by increasing the aspect ratio, shear stress is decreased significantly.