Type of Submission
Poster
Keywords
Flow, velocity, discharge, float, stream, gage, Massie's Creek, Little Miami River
Abstract
The simplest method of determining stream velocity involves measuring how long it takes a floating object or material to move a certain distance downstream. This study tested a dog toy (mini tennis ball), a 2 inch diameter piece of pumice, a playing card, a full 16.9 oz. water bottle, and milk. The floats were released where the maximum velocity of the stream was found through the use of profiling with a simple flowmeter. The real-time data from a USGS-gaged stream only shows discharge and gage height (stage); it does not show velocity. However, the historic USGS-technician stream-flow-verification data for a gaged site does contain the information necessary to construct relational graphs showing discharge, velocity, and stage. This data can be accessed online and the exact date and time can be found for when the float trials occurred. A stage value at the time testing was conducted can be used to create a relational graph in order to determine average velocity. This value is considered the correct average velocity. The velocity determined from averaging all the velocities from the multiple trial runs of an object (material) at a stream is considered the uncorrected maximum velocity. Applying a specific number to the uncorrected maximum velocity to match the corrected average velocity derives the correction coefficient. This technique to determine a correction coefficient was used at USGS gaging sites on the Little Miami River and Massie’s Creek in Greene County, OH. The best floating material for determining velocity was found to be milk. The correction coefficient for both streams approximated 0.50. The value of using this velocity estimate technique on a stream without a gaging station comes through eyeballing the maximum surface velocity location, pouring some milk in the stream, measuring the time it takes for the milk to pass a certain distance, then calculating an uncorrected maximum velocity and multiplying that number by 0.50 to get a corrected average velocity.
Faculty Sponsor or Advisor’s Name
Thomas L. Rice
Campus Venue
Stevens Student Center
Location
Cedarville, OH
Start Date
4-1-2015 11:00 AM
End Date
4-1-2015 2:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Derivation of Correction Coefficients for Stream Velocities, Upper Little Miami River Basin, OH
Cedarville, OH
The simplest method of determining stream velocity involves measuring how long it takes a floating object or material to move a certain distance downstream. This study tested a dog toy (mini tennis ball), a 2 inch diameter piece of pumice, a playing card, a full 16.9 oz. water bottle, and milk. The floats were released where the maximum velocity of the stream was found through the use of profiling with a simple flowmeter. The real-time data from a USGS-gaged stream only shows discharge and gage height (stage); it does not show velocity. However, the historic USGS-technician stream-flow-verification data for a gaged site does contain the information necessary to construct relational graphs showing discharge, velocity, and stage. This data can be accessed online and the exact date and time can be found for when the float trials occurred. A stage value at the time testing was conducted can be used to create a relational graph in order to determine average velocity. This value is considered the correct average velocity. The velocity determined from averaging all the velocities from the multiple trial runs of an object (material) at a stream is considered the uncorrected maximum velocity. Applying a specific number to the uncorrected maximum velocity to match the corrected average velocity derives the correction coefficient. This technique to determine a correction coefficient was used at USGS gaging sites on the Little Miami River and Massie’s Creek in Greene County, OH. The best floating material for determining velocity was found to be milk. The correction coefficient for both streams approximated 0.50. The value of using this velocity estimate technique on a stream without a gaging station comes through eyeballing the maximum surface velocity location, pouring some milk in the stream, measuring the time it takes for the milk to pass a certain distance, then calculating an uncorrected maximum velocity and multiplying that number by 0.50 to get a corrected average velocity.
