Wall-roughness effects of trapezoidal ribs on the flow of open channel

The trapezoidal ribs had been installed in the retaining wall in order to reduce to flood damage in the impingement of mountain rivers. In this study, experiments in open channel with the trapezoidal ribs on sidewall were conducted to evaluate the effect of flow resistance by the trapezoidal shape. The hydraulic flow characteristics according to the flow rates were surveyed where the wall roughness is k-type that dimensionless spacings, λnυ, are 6, 9, and 12. The flow-resistance factors such as roughness and friction coefficients increased generally with increase of the spacing of ribs. In high flow rate the friction coefficient showed the maximum value when λnυ is 9. Though the trapezoidal ribs has the relatively smaller flow resistance compared to the square ribs, their form drag accounted for mean 62% of the total flow resistance. It was confirmed that the optimal spacing of trapezoidal ribs to maximize the effect of flow resistance as the wall roughness increases are 9 to 12 times of the height of trapezoidal ribs.