Drainage of Pavements Under Nonuniform Rainfall

Abstract

A desk‐top method is presented to predict the maximum runoff from pavement‐gutter systems produced by temporally nonuniform rainfalls. The method is founded on the kinematic‐wave solutions of the pavement and gutter flows. The governing equations are written in terms of three physically based nondimensional parameters. For a specified time pattern of rainfall intensity, the constant values of these parameters imply hydraulic similarity of an infinite number of different pavement‐flow‐gutter‐flow situations. An implicit finite‐difference technique is employed to solve the governing equations. The mathematical model is verified using a set of existing experimental data. Based on the concept of hydraulic similarity, a group of charts is developed to predict peak gutter‐flow rates that are produced by triangular and Huff first‐quartile‐point rainfalls. The use of these charts is shown by a practical applications section. Similar charts can be developed for other types of rainfall hyetographs.