Effects of surface roughness on overflow discharge of embankment weirs

A numerical study was performed on the embankment weir overflows with various surface roughness and tailwater submergence, to better understand the effects of weir roughness on discharge performances under the free and submerged conditions. The variation of flow regime is captured, from the free overflow, submerged hydraulic jump, to surface flow with increasing tailwater depth. A roughness factor is introduced to reflect the reduction in discharge caused by weir roughness. The roughness factor decreases with the roughness height, and it also depends on the tailwater depth, highlighting various relations of the roughness factor with the roughness height between different flow regimes, which is linear for the free overflow and submerged hydraulic jump while exponential for the surface flow. Accordingly, the effects of weir roughness on overflow discharge appear nonnegligible for the significant roughness height and the surface flow regime occurring under considerable tailwater submergence. The established empirical expressions of discharge coefficient and submergence and roughness factors make it possible to predict the discharge over embankment weirs considering both tailwater submergence and surface roughness.