I have a large river valley that has multiple channels. The flow distribution through these channels, with respect to discharge stays constant. So at 10,000 m3/sec 70% of the flow stays in the main channel, and at 2,000 m3/sec 70% stays in the main channel, and so forth until bankfull stage is exceeded. Does anyone have knowledge of another system whose flow distribution has been studied like this?
Hi, Daniel,
Your question let me recall DuJiangYan in China, an artificial diversion work which make the flow rate to the diversion channel almost constant. The ratio of the flow rate in main channel and diversion channel changes roughly from 6:4 to 4:6 from high water to low flow condition. Considering it is a diversion work constructed about 2000 years ago and still in use today, it is very amazing.
Sorry for this off track answer.
Is the DuJiangYan an open diversion or does it have a control structure that limits flow through the diversion?
The diversion channel is an artificial open channel. Originally, there was no control structure. Li Bing who made it ably used the curvature and the sandbar to control the flow to the diversion channel. Lately, a flow control structure which may not be possible 2000 years ago was added at downstream side. For more details, please try to read the wiki page at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dujiangyan
Hello Daniel, we've been analyzing the flow distribution in an anastomosing river, however rather for a small system, with mean annual flows around 20 m3/s. What was interesting for us, we found that the flow distribution depends on vegetation - it is different for winter and summer periods.
You can find our initial outcomes here: http://ann_landreclam.sggw.pl/z493/art3.pdf
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