This course has been discontinued
This two hour interactive online course is the fifth of a RedVector.com series presenting the basic hydraulics of open channel flow, the field of engineering fluid mechanics encompassing free-surface discharge. This course further explores water surface profiles associated with nonuniform flow, the flow state where depth changes with channel distance.
This course introduces no new equations. Discussion will initially progress rapidly because you'll be using the tools already practiced on mild slopes. If you are not familiar with the concept and use of specific energy, specific force, normal depth, friction slope, and what makes a mild slope mild, work on these basics first. This course refers to earlier content.
Discussion will then move toward sequential profiles where channels change slope and/or are nonprismatic. The course will discuss how computer routines do the work, a turn-around from the distance-given-depth calculations in our illustrations. This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end.
This course is the final edition in a series on Open Channel Hydraulics presented on RedVector.com. It is not required you take the first four courses in this series, but it is highly recommended. If you would like to take any of the first four courses in this series, please return to the course listing.