CIV E 632-COMPUTATIONAL HYDRAULICS AND HYDROLOGY
SPRING 2012
FINAL EXAM
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2012, 1900-2100

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

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

  1. Explain the method of cascade of linear reservoirs. When is it used?

  2. What two kinds of errors arise in numerical modeling? Explain which one is related to stability, and which one to convergence. Why is numerical modeling a compromise between stability and convergence?

  3. Why is a second-order numerical scheme not necessarily better than a first-order scheme? What artifice is usually resorted to in order to provide stability at the expense of convergence?

  4. Why is the Li method for the solution of kinematic waves ill-advised?

  5. Why does the Muskingum-Cunge method work best at Courant number equal to 1? What happens for Courant greater than 1? For Courant less than 1?

  6. What is topology in the context of watershed/basin modeling?

  7. Do sedimentation bed transients (channel bottom perturbations) in alluvial rivers travel upstream or downstream? Explain.

  8. Why do dam-breach flood wave peaks eventually reach the same value at a certain distance downstream?

  9. What is an inherently stable channel?

  10. Should two-dimensional flow to a side river embayment convect (go straight into) or circulate (turn around)? Explain.

  11. Why is it better to use an explicit scheme rather than an implicit scheme in two-dimensional groundwater modeling? Explain.