ABSTRACT
Fundamental to determining flow discharge, scour around bridge piers, erosion and sediment transport, pollutant transport, energy and momentum distribution coefficients, hydraulic geometry, watershed runoff, and river behavior is velocity distribution. Consider, for example, discharge measurements that involve velocity sampling. In order for these measurements to be simple and efficient, the number of velocity samples to be taken must be sufficiently small so that sampling may be accomplished quickly and within the time frame of the particular flow and velocity regime being investigated. Translating a small number of velocity samples into the cross-sectional mean velocity requires a velocity distribution equation. In wide open channels, velocity increases monotonically from the channel bed toward the water surface and can be approximately considered as one-dimensional. The objective of this chapter is to present velocity distributions in one dimension in open channels using the Tsallis entropy.
