CIV E 638-SEDIMENTATION ENGINEERING
FALL 2016
MIDTERM EXAM, MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2016, 19:00-20:15

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. Answer only ten (10) questions.

  1. What does the Shields curve express? What are the parameters (abscissa and ordinate)? What is the accepted threshold value of the Shields parameter for initiation of motion?

  2. What is the value of Froude number that guarantees initiation of motion under most conditions of practical interest?

  3. List the five friction descriptors used in hydraulic engineering and sedimentation engineering.

  4. What is Jarrett's contribution to river mechanics?

  5. How is critical shear stress related to critical velocity?

  6. According to Humboldt, how are forests, floods and springs related?

  7. To what did Albert Einstein attributed the cause of meandering in his 1926 paper?

  8. How does Nature minimize the changes in stage with changes in discharge? Explain.

  9. What is the difference between sediment production, sediment yield, sediment transport, and sediment routing?

  10. Explain what went wrong in 1905 during the diversion of the Colorado river in Mexico to send water to the Imperial Valley.

  11. What is the difference between the original Lane relation (1955) and the modified Lane relation? State the relations.