CIV E 632-COMPUTATIONAL HYDRAULICS AND HYDROLOGY
SPRING 2016
MIDTERM EXAM
MARCH 9, 2016, 1900-2015

Name: _________________ Red ID ________________ 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 gravity (inertia-pressure) waves. State in tabular form.

  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 are the differences between constant and variable-parameter Muskingum-Cunge routing? State in tabular form.

  5. What is the Courant number? What Courant number optimizes numerical diffusion and minimizes numerical dispersion in Muskingum-Cunge routing?

  6. What is grid independence in the context of numerical modeling? Is the convex method grid independent? Why, or why not?

  7. Were Hromadka and DeVries correct in stating (1988) that the convex method was better than the kinematic wave method of HEC-HMS? Explain.

  8. Why is the Li method to solve the kinematic wave equation more diffusive that the Schaake method incorporated in HEC-HMS?

  9. What is the cause of attenuation in unsteady open-channel flow?

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

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

  12. How do the Hayami, Dooge, and Ponce hydraulic diffusivities differ from each other?