CIV E 632-COMPUTATIONAL HYDRAULICS AND HYDROLOGY
SPRING 2008
MIDTERM EXAM
MARCH 8, 2008, 1900-2015

Name: ______________________ S.S. No. ________________ Grade: _______

Instructions: Closed book, closed notes. Answer only ten (10) questions. Use engineering paper. When you are finished, staple your work in sequence, and return this sheet with your work.

  1. Compare the celerity and attenuation properties of kinematic, diffusion, dynamic, and inertial (gravity) waves. Do dynamic waves exist in the real world? Do kinematic waves exist in the real world? Explain.

  2. What do overland flow and slow-rising flood waves have in common that they lend themselves to description by kinematic and diffusion wave models?

  3. What is the main message of Cunge's paper on the Muskingum method?

  4. What definition of Courant number would you use in flood routing computations?

  5. Compare the unit hydrograph and the overland flow methods in terms of their ability to simulate watershed rainfall-runoff.

  6. Why is the kinematic wave method of HEC-HMS (the Schaake and Leclerc method) not likely to simulate runoff diffusion properly?

  7. What is grid independence in the context of numerical modeling?

  8. Under what four physical conditions is the kinematic shock more likely to develop?

  9. Why do kinematic shock not likely to happen in a river like the Upper Paraguay?

  10. How do HEC-RAS steady (HEC-2) and HEC-RAS unsteady (the Barkau model) differ in their ability to simulate flood discharges?

  11. What are the main hydraulic parameters in dam breach routing?