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    1-7 - Time of Concentration

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    Numan Shah
    The time of concentration is the time required for water from the most remote point in a watershed to reach the outlet once the soil is saturated. It is used to determine when peak flow will occur for a storm, assuming peak flow happens when the storm duration equals the time of concentration. The time of concentration depends on watershed characteristics and can be calculated using formulas from Kirpich, the SCS, or Chow. The SCS recommends two methods - the lag method relates time of concentration to watershed slope, length, and retention potential, while the velocity method defines it as the ratio of flow length to velocity estimated from land use and slope.

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    1-7 - Time of Concentration

    Uploaded by

    Numan Shah
    10 views6 pages
    The time of concentration is the time required for water from the most remote point in a watershed to reach the outlet once the soil is saturated. It is used to determine when peak flow will occur for a storm, assuming peak flow happens when the storm duration equals the time of concentration. The time of concentration depends on watershed characteristics and can be calculated using formulas from Kirpich, the SCS, or Chow. The SCS recommends two methods - the lag method relates time of concentration to watershed slope, length, and retention potential, while the velocity method defines it as the ratio of flow length to velocity estimated from land use and slope.

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    Calculating Time of Concentration for a watershed (Hydrology)

    Original Title

    1-7- Time of concentration

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    The time of concentration is the time required for water from the most remote point in a watershed to reach the outlet once the soil is saturated. It is used to determine when peak flow will occur for a storm, assuming peak flow happens when the storm duration equals the time of concentration. The time of concentration depends on watershed characteristics and can be calculated using formulas from Kirpich, the SCS, or Chow. The SCS recommends two methods - the lag method relates time of concentration to watershed slope, length, and retention potential, while the velocity method defines it as the ratio of flow length to velocity estimated from land use and slope.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    10 views6 pages

    1-7 - Time of Concentration

    Uploaded by

    Numan Shah
    The time of concentration is the time required for water from the most remote point in a watershed to reach the outlet once the soil is saturated. It is used to determine when peak flow will occur for a storm, assuming peak flow happens when the storm duration equals the time of concentration. The time of concentration depends on watershed characteristics and can be calculated using formulas from Kirpich, the SCS, or Chow. The SCS recommends two methods - the lag method relates time of concentration to watershed slope, length, and retention potential, while the velocity method defines it as the ratio of flow length to velocity estimated from land use and slope.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

    Time of concentration

    The time of concentration of a watershed is the time required for


    water to flow from the most remote (in time of flow) point of the
    area to the outlet once the soil has become saturated and minor
    depressions filled.
    It is assumed that when the duration of a storm equals the time of
    concentration, all parts of the watershed are contributing
    simultaneously to the discharge at the outlet.
    However, for small drainage basins, the lag time for the peak flow
    can be taken to be equal to the time of concentration.
     The time of concentration is a function of catchment size, its shape
    land use and soil properties.
    Different formulas exist for calculating the time of concentration
    such as:
    Kirpich SCS Chow etc

    1
    Time of Concentration

    One of the most widely accepted methods of computing the time of


    concentration was developed by Kirpich (1940):

    Tc = 0.0195 L0.77 S-0.385


    Where
    Tc = time of concentration in min
    L = maximum length of flow in m
    S = the watershed gradient in m per m or the difference in elevation between
    the outlet and the most remote point divided by the length, L.

    2
    Time of Concentration

    SCS has recommended two methods for time of concentration, the lag method
    and the upland, or velocity method.
    The lag method relates the time lag (TL ), defined as the time in hours from the
    center of mass of the rainfall excess to the peak discharge, to the slope (Y) in
    percent, the hydraulic length (L) in feet, and the potential maximum retention (S),
    expressed as

    Where L = longest flow length (m)


    3
    Time of Concentration

    The velocity (upland) method is based upon defining the time of


    concentration as the ratio of the hydraulic flow length (L) to the velocity (V)

    Tc = L / (3600 V)
    where Tc is in hours, L is in feet and V in ft/s.

    The velocity can be estimated (from figure developed by US SCS -1986)


    knowing the land use and the slope.

    If the watershed consists of k segments with different land uses, the


    concentration will be

    4
    Peak Flow Rate by SCS

    This method described by US SCS (!973) was developed for uniform


    rainfall using the assumptions for a triangular hydrograph as:

    q = 0.0021 Q A / T p

    Where
    Q = runoff volume in mm (area under the hydrograph)
    q = runoff rate in m3/s
    A = watershed area in ha
    Tp = time to peak in hours

    Tp = 0.5 D + 0.6 Tc
    D = duration of excess rainfall

    6
    Example 1
    Using the SCS method, determine the peak runoff rate from a 100 ha
    watershed from a uniform 36-min (0.6-h) storm that produced 10 mm of
    runoff volume. Assume Tc for the watershed is 0.5 h.

    Solution

    Tp = 0.5 D + 0.6 Tc
    = 0.5 x 0.6 + 0.6 x 0.5 = 0.6 h

    q = 0.0021 Q A /Tp

    = 0.0021 x 10 x 100 / 0.6


    = 3.50 m3/s
    7

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