Historical development of the Regime Geometry Equations, Part-I

Abstract

The present study intended to review the historical development of the regime geometry equations proposed by many researchers since 1895. Kennedy started the search for the attributes of stable channels on the Upper Bari Doab Canal of Punjab in 1980-1984. The regime concept was presented by Lindley (1919) that later on Lacey (1930) modified to a set of most widely used regime relations. Later on, Blench (1941-1957), and Simons and Albertson (1960) presented their equations. This period is called ‘canal regime period’ because most of the research focused on canal design. The concept of regime was extended to river systems by Leopold and Maddock in 1953. In 1963, Henderson proposed some regime equations that can be applied for predicting canal and river geometry. This period was the transition from canal regime period to river regime period and from an empirical approach to analytical approach and is called as ‘Transitional Period’. Many other researchers written the information based on analytical approach, or a combination between analytical and empirical approaches, and more focused to river regime especially gravel bed river regime. This period is, called ‘River regime period’. Flow discharge, sediment size, and bed-load sediment are the three main factors that influence the geometry of alluvial channels. The hydraulic geometry relationships indicate that sediment size and bed-load sediment strongly influence the channel slope, moderately influence the flow velocity, and slightly influence the channel depth and the channel width. This study also shows that in terms of Shields parameter, the exponents of discharge, sediment size, and sediment transport are dependent on the relative submergence (D/d50).