VEB2122: Civil Engineering Laboratory II

Lab Report

Title: Hydrograph
Lecturer: Dr. Husna Takaijudin
Group 3
No Name Student ID
1 Farah Najihah Azmani 19001679
2 Harith Ismail 18002507
3 Michael Tiong Shu Yu 18002455
4 Syameem Hakime bin Abdul Aziz 18002573
Introduction
Hydrograph is a graph or plot that shows the rate of water flow in relation to time. This
graph is used to measure stormwater runoff on a particular site. In hydrology, we learnt about
hydrological cycle. It is a complete circulation of water on the earth between the atmospheres. The
water is evaporated by the sun and falls to land and sea as precipitation and ultimately finds its
way back to the atmosphere through multiple processes. In this experiment, we need to obtain the
hydrograph from a single storm, multiple storms, moving storms and impermeable catchment. The
storm can be created by using the rainfall hydrograph equipment and the impermeable catchment
can be created by covering the catchment with plastic sheet.

Objectives

• To obtain the hydrograph from a single storm.

• To obtain the hydrograph from multiple storms in sequence.
• To obtain the hydrograph from moving storms.
• To obtain the hydrograph from an impermeable catchment.

Apparatus

• Rainfall Hydrograph Equipment

Procedures

Preliminary steps

1. The water supply for the equipment was turned on to the maximum.
2. The flow control valve was set to the maximum. The discharge reading can be checked at
the flowmeter.
3. All spray nozzle valves were fully opened.
4. The collection tank unit was correctly positioned.
5. The power supply for the equipment was turned on.
6. The RESET button was pressed on the control timer so that initial readings are set to be
zero.
7. INCREASE and DECREASE buttons on the control timer were used to adjust time for 10
seconds.
8. Continue the procedures for each experiment described below:

A Single Storm

1. The RAIN button at the control timer was pressed to start the rain and the elapsed time
clock. The water began to flow through the nozzles.
2. The COLLECTION button at the control timer was pressed to start traverse of the
collection tank unit.
3. The equipment was monitored.
4. The rainfall was stopped by pressing the RAIN button once again when the timer reached
40 seconds.
5. The collection tank unit was continued to be monitored. Once it completed its traverse,
the depth of water collected was recorded at each compartment with respect to its elapsed
time.
6. The collection tank was emptied.

Multiple Stroms

1. For the first storm, the steps 2 to 4 in A Single Storm were followed. The rainfall was
stopped by pressing the RAIN button when the timer reached 20 seconds.
2. For the second storm, the RAIN button was pressed once again when the timer reached
100 seconds.
3. The rainfall was stopped by pressing the RAIN button once again when the timer reached
120 seconds.
4. While measuring water depths collected at each compartment, make sure that the elapsed
time for each was also recorded.
Moving Storms

1. The Preliminary Steps was followed. In contrast, only the downstream spray nozzle valve
is opened while the upstream spray nozzle valve remains close. This is to create a storm
that is moving from downstream to upstream of the catchment.
2. The steps 2 to 7 in A Single Storm were followed.
3. The water from the catchment was allowed to drain for 10 minutes.
4. Now, the downstream spray nozzle valve was closed, and the upstream spray nozzle
valve was opened. This is to create a storm that is moving from upstream to downstream
of the catchment.
5. The steps 2 to 7 in A Single Storm were followed.

Impermeable Catchment

1. Plastic sheet was fit over the entire surface of the catchment. This is to create a catchment
with an impermeable surface. Make sure that the water cannot penetrate into the sand at
the outlet end of the tank.
2. Steps 2 to 7 in A Single Strom were followed.
 Results
1. Single Storm
Catchment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Water depth (cm) 0 11 20 21 22 25 26 27 34 43 42 51 50 48 46 21 20 11 0

Rainfall duration = 40 seconds

Single Storm
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20

2. Multiple Storm
Catchment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Water depth (cm) 0 30 48 40 39 35 32 29 39 24 25 41 44 45 42 40 38 34 0

Rainfall duration 1 = 20 seconds

Gap (stop raining) = 80 seconds
Rainfall 2 duration = 20 seconds

Multiple Storm
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
 3. Moving Storm Downstream
Catchment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Water depth (cm) 0 36 49 56 54 49 42 40 39 32 31 29 28 24 24 21 19 20 0

Rainfall duration = 39 seconds

Moving Storm Downstream

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20

4. Moving Storm Upstream

Catchment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Water depth (cm) 0 19 22 23 24 26 28 27 39 34 36 39 41 41 40 38 33 24 0

Rainfall duration = 39 seconds

Moving Storm Upstream

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 5 10 15 20
 5. Impermeable Catchment
Catchment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Water depth (cm) 0 11 50 70 76 89 93 86 70 65 61 36 26 22 21 13 6 11 0

Rainfall duration = 39 seconds

Impermeable Catchment
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
Discussion
A hydrograph is a graph that described the response of a catchment to a rainfall input which
occur at a certain amount of time. Besides, the hydrograph also showed the relationship between
the rainfall runoff with the time occurring under the effects of basin characteristics, channel
characteristics, storm characteristics and infiltration characteristics. The basin characteristics
include shape, slope, and size. The infiltration characteristics included soil type and land use while
the channel characteristics included intensity, duration, and precipitation. For this experiment, we
were focused on a single storm, multiple storms, moving storms and impermeable catchment.

For the single storm, the water depth which represented the precipitation was increasing
until 51cm at catchment 12 with time. At this catchment, the precipitation was the highest which
meant the rainfall was at the maximum intensity. Then, the precipitation decreased until the
precipitation reached zero at catchment 19. At this catchment, there was no rainfall happening. As
for the multiple storms, since the rainfall happened at two different durations with a gap of 80
seconds between those two rainfalls, there will be two peak rainfalls as shown in the hydrograph.
From the hydrograph, the first precipitation increased to 48cm at the catchment 3 which also
showed that the peak rainfall occurred at this catchment. Then, the precipitation reduced to 24cm
at catchment 10 which meant the rainfall was decreasing. After that, there will be 80 seconds gap
until the second precipitation happened at section 11 at 25cm. Then, the second precipitation
increased until it reached the peak at catchment 14 at 45cm. Then, the second precipitation
decreased to 0cm at catchment 19 at which the rainfall stopped. In other words, the peak rainfall
occurred at two different storms which were 48cm for first rainfall and 45cm for the second
rainfall. When the multiple storms were compared to the single storm, it was observed that there
were two peak rainfalls for multiple storms but as for the single storm there was only one peak
rainfall. Besides, the peak rainfalls for multiple storms which were 48cm and 45cm were smaller
than the peak rainfall for single storm which was 51cm. This showed that single storm will
experience higher precipitation as compared to multiple storms. This was maybe due to the climate
action and moisture content of the atmosphere. When the moisture content was at average value at
the atmosphere, the rainfall will form slower and form in two different durations and this caused
the multiple storms to have lower precipitations. But if the moisture content was at a very high
value at the atmosphere, the rainfall will form very fast and happen in one time only. This was
why the single storm had higher precipitation.
 For the moving storm downstream, the peak precipitation occurred at the beginning which
was at catchment 4 with 56cm while the peak precipitation for the moving storm upstream occurred
at the end which was at catchment 13 and catchment 14 with 41cm. This proved that the peak
precipitation always occurred at a higher place because higher place was nearer to the atmosphere
so the moisture content will be high. After catchment 4 for moving storm downstream, the
precipitation decreased as time went on until it reached zero at catchment 19 while for moving
storm upstream, after catchment 14, the precipitation also decreased until it reached zero at
catchment 19. For moving storm upstream, the time when the peak precipitation happened was
similar to the single storm. Both were happened at the end which single storm happened at
catchment 12 while moving storm upstream happened at catchment 13 and 14. Both before the
peak precipitation the precipitation was increasing and after the peak precipitation the precipitation
was decreasing. As for moving storm downstream, it was completely opposite of the single storm.
The peak precipitation for the single storm was at the end of the catchment which was at catchment
12 while the peak precipitation for the moving storm downstream was at the beginning of the
catchment which was at catchment 4. Besides, most of the time the precipitation for single storm
was increasing but for moving storm downstream the precipitation was decreasing.

For impermeable catchment, the precipitation increased from the start until the catchment
7 which was the peak precipitation of 93cm. Then, the precipitation decreased drastically until
catchment 19 at which the precipitation is 0cm. This was because the catchment was coated by a
plastic sheet which made the catchment to have an impermeable surface. As a result, the water
cannot penetrate through the sand at the outlet end of the tank. This was the reason why the
precipitation was so high at the beginning but then decreased drastically at the end after the peak
precipitation happened. The peak precipitation for the impermeable catchment was 93cm at
catchment 7 while the peak precipitation for the single storm was 51cm at catchment 12. Besides,
the overall precipitation for the impermeable catchment was higher than the overall precipitation
for the single storm. Lastly, the peak precipitation for the impermeable catchment happened at the
beginning of the catchment while the peak precipitation for the single storm happened at the end
of the catchment.
Conclusion
From this experiment, graphs were plotted to see the pattern of precipitation in 5 situations
of controlled environment which included single storm, multiple storms, moving storm at
downstream as well as at upstream, and for impermeable catchment. For the single storm, it was
observed that there was only one peak while for multiple storms, there were two peaks. These
peaks represent the number of precipitations that occurred at that area. For the storm that moved
downstream, the peak observed were the precipitation was higher at the upstream while for the
storm that moved upstream, the peak was higher was higher at the downstream. Lastly, for the
impermeable catchment, it was observed that the water depth was much higher than other
situations. This is because the runoff does not seep into the ground due the impermeable surface.
Therefore, it was concluded that the objectives were achieved, and this experiment was a success.

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