The wetted perimeter is the perimeter of the cross sectional area that is "wet". The length of line of the intersection of channel wetted surface with a cross sectional plane normal to the flow direction. The term wetted perimeter is common in civil engineering, environmental engineering, hydrology, geomorphology, and heat transfer applications; it is associated with the hydraulic diameter or hydraulic radius. Engineers commonly cite the cross sectional area of a river.
The wetted perimeter can be defined mathematically as
where li is the length of each surface in contact with the aqueous body.
In open channel flow, the wetted perimeter is defined as the surface of the channel bottom and sides in direct contact with the aqueous body. Friction losses typically increase with an increasing wetted perimeter, resulting in a decrease in head. In a practical experiment, one is able to measure the wetted perimeter with a tape measure weighted down to the river bed to get a more accurate measurement.
When a channel is much wider than it is deep, the wetted perimeter approximates the channel width.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
In fluid mechanics and hydraulics, open-channel flow is a type of liquid flow within a conduit with a free surface, known as a channel. The other type of flow within a conduit is pipe flow. These two types of flow are similar in many ways but differ in one important respect: open-channel flow has a free surface, whereas pipe flow does not. Open-channel flow can be classified and described in various ways based on the change in flow depth with respect to time and space.
The worst enemy of sustainable use of reservoirs is sedimentation. Often the main silting process is the result of settling down of suspended sediments. In shallow reservoirs the flow pattern and the sediment deposition processes are strongly influenced by ...
Hydrodynamic waves are an unsteady flow motion generated by rapid water level rise. In nature, such events can be found in dam-break waves, impulse waves and tsunamis. These phenomena are rare, but highly destructive. The present study is based on an exper ...
We verify the broad applicability of tidal prism cross-sectional area relationships, originally proposed to relate the total water volume entering a lagoon during a characteristic tidal cycle (the tidal prism) to the size of its inlet, to arbitrary shelter ...