Testing the Stage-Discharge Relationship in Sloping SMBF Flumes

Abstract

The Samani, Magallanez, Baiamonte, Ferro (SMBF) flume is a simple and inexpensive instrument for indirect discharge measurement that was originally proposed for use in a horizontal channel and then also applied in sloping channels. The contraction of the flow cross section, aimed at establishing a critical flow condition, is simply obtained by applying two half cylinders to the walls of a rectangular cross section. In this paper a theoretical approach previously proposed for a horizontal SMBF flume is first extended to a sloping SMBF flume and a new stage-discharge relationship is deduced. Then, this equation is experimentally tested using laboratory measurements from literature for different values of the contraction ratio and flume slope, and its reliability is compared to the reliability of the equation originally proposed in the literature.