Jurnal Intelek (2015) Vol 10(1): 49-54

ISSN 2231-7716

PJIM&A, UiTM Perlis

Head-Discharge Relationships for Rectangular

Flat-Crested Slit Weir
Rosley Jaafar
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Pulau Pinang Malaysia.
rosley110@ppinang.uitm.edu.my

Abstract
The rectangular weir is the most commonly used device in channel and laboratory for flow measurement
due to its simplicity. The rectangular sharp-crested slit weir has been shown to be good at measuring
small (< 0.005 m3/s) flow rates. In this study, the rectangular slit weir concept is extended to find the
head-discharge relationship of water flows over a contracted rectangular flat-crested slit weir under free
flow conditions. The head-discharge relationship is determined experimentally using a nine different weir
heights with 10 mm weir width and 4 mm weir crest thickness at small discharges (< 0.00067 m3/s). The
experimental data of actual and predicted discharge is verified by using a statistical analysis. A linear
regression equation correlating the head-discharge relationship provides an accurate prediction of free
flow discharge over the weir to yield results within 2.1% error of actual discharges and have a strong
relationship. The presented head-discharge equation can use to estimate the discharge flow of water over
rectangular flat-crested slit weir with an appropriate limitation.
Keywords: discharge equation; water discharge; discharge coefficient; slit weir

Introduction
Weirs are among the oldest and simplest hydraulic
structures that have been used for many years by
hydraulic engineers for flow measurement, energy
dissipation, flow diversion and other means
(Borghei et al.1999). Flow measurement structure is
generally designed to act as a control in the channel
in order to provide a unique relationship between
the upstream head and the discharge (Boiten, 2002).
The relationship of discharge to a measurement of
water level can be forecast either from basic
physical principles or from empirical evidence on
performance. The discharge equation as well as a
head-discharge relationship for a weir cannot be
derived exactly since the flow which is affected by
viscosity, surface tension, the geometry of the weir
and several other parameters is complicated.
Therefore, weir types and dimensions are
standardized an accurate discharge formula are
developed empirically using extensive experimental
data. The general form of free flow head-discharge
relationship for any weir can be expressed as:

KH n

(1)

where Q is the discharge, H is the depth of the flow

upstream of the weir measured above the weir crest
or head, K is a flow coefficient and n is an exponent
number and theoretically equal to 1.5 and 2.5 for
rectangular and triangular weirs respectively. The

accuracy of discharge measurements depends on

the precision of the reading at the head over the
weir.
For many years, the problem of flow over sharpcrested weirs has been a subject of many
investigations. In general, the investigation is
carried out to study the relationship between
discharges and head such as Shesha Prakash and
Shivapur (2004), Mallikarjuna et.al (2005),
Baddour (2008), Tullis and Neilson (2008) and
Aydin et.al (2011). Rectangular sharp-crested weirs
placed perpendicularly across the rectangular
channel are widely used for the measurement of
flow in the laboratory as well as in small channels
in the field (Wu and Rajaratnam, 1996). Aydin et
al. (2002 and 2006) introduced the concept of slit
weir. This weir is a rectangular sharp-crested with
very small weir width, in which is effective in
measuring very small of water flow rates.
Ramamurthy et al. (2007) extended the study of the
slit weir concept with experiments on rectangular
sharp-crested multislit weir for measuring a wide
range of water flow rates.
One of the classification of finite-crest widths
weirs for flow over a rectangular weir with an
upstream sharp corner which is stated that if H/t >
1.5 (i.e. t is the weir crest thickness), the weir is
classified as a sharp-crested (Govinda Rao and
Muralidhar 1963: source; Subramanya 2005). Thus,
the classification is used and the concept of slit weir
is continued in this study by using a contracted
rectangular flat-crested instead of a rectangular
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Jurnal Intelek (2015) Vol 10(1): 49-54

ISSN 2231-7716

PJIM&A, UiTM Perlis

sharp-crested weir for measuring flow of water at

small flow rates at different weir heights. The effect
of fluid properties and channel geometry are not
considered. The discharge characteristics are
investigated in laboratory to find the head-discharge
relationships of the weir Experimental Setup and
Procedures
Experiments were performed in a rectangular
stainless steel channel of 1100 mm long, 200 mm
wide and 200 mm deep (Figure 1). The channel
entrance is installed with baffle plates to ensure
smooth entry of water in the channel. The slit weirs
were fabricated from perspex plates 4 mm thick,
which is similar to the weir crest thickness (Figure
2). Plasticine was used to prevent water leakage
between channel walls and frame edges of weir
plate. A rotameter was used to determine the actual
discharge measurements. The discharges examined
in this study are from 0.00033 to 0.00067 m3/s. The
steel ruler, in which the accuracy is about 5% of the
scale, was used to measure the water level at the
position of 390 mm from the weir plate. Ackers et
al. (1978) stated that the gauging station should be
located sufficiently far upstream to avoid the area
of water surface draw-down, that is between three
to four times the maximum total head over the weir.
In this study, the location is about 3.7 times of the
maximum total head over the weir upstream from
the face of the weir (390 mm as shown in Figure 1)
in which it follows the recommendation.

The experiment has been repeated for nine

different weir plates with the total of 45 runs in
which five
series of discharge for each weir plate. Water is
filled in the feed tank with water from the tap and
the pump is started to admit water into the main
tank until it discharges over the weir plate. The
flow control valve is adjusted to obtain the
appropriated discharges reading at the rotameter.
The water in the channel is supplied and circulated
using a water pump at constant speed. Head
measurements were replicated thrice, and the mean
was used in the analysis. Measurements were
conducted for nine different weir heights P
(0.035m, 0.04m, 0.045m, 0.05m, 0.055m, 0.06m,
0.065m, 0.07m, 0.075m) in a channel with a width
(B) of 0.2 m. According to Aydin et al. (2002), the
width of a weir is not classified a slit if the width
exceeds more than 0.075 m. Therefore, following
their recommendation, the weir width b = 0.01 m is
used for this study. The minimum and maximum
values of head H measured for each weir height are
shown in Table 1. The Experimental data are
covered for the range of 6.3 < H/b < 10.4 and 0.853
< H/p < 2.852 collectively.
The liquid used was clean water at 22 C, which
is considered to possess the standard properties of
water such as surface tension = 0.0728 N/m,
dynamic viscosity = 1.002 x 10-3 kg/ms,
kinematic viscosity = 1 x 10-6 m2/s, density =
998.2 kg/m3, and specific weight = 9789 N/m3.

Baffle plates
Weir plate
200 mm

708 mm

1100 mm

Measuring distance
390 mm
Channel
Main
tank

Supports
Feed
tank

Inflow, Q

Pipe line
Rotameter
Figure 1: Top and side views of the experimental apparatus
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Jurnal Intelek (2015) Vol 10(1): 49-54

ISSN 2231-7716

PJIM&A, UiTM Perlis

t = 4 mm

Approach channel

Flow

P
Weir plate

Figure 2: Sketch of contracted rectangular flat-crested slit weir

Discussion of Results
As the depth of water above the weir head
increases, the discharge over the weir increases
correspondingly. The relationship that is always
sought with a weir is between the head H over the
crest and the discharge Q. From the actual values of
QA, for each weir height P, the experimental result
in the minimum and maximum values of weir heads
H are shown in Table 1, however the majority of
the values were between 0.064 m and 0.096 m.
Table 1: Minimum and maximum values of weir
heads
Series P (m)
Hmin (m) Hmax
(m)
1
0.035
0.069
0.100
2
0.040
0.067
0.102
3
0.045
0.064
0.104
4
0.050
0.065
0.102
5
0.055
0.066
0.101
6
0.060
0.066
0.101
7
0.065
0.063
0.099
8
0.070
0.064
0.098
9
0.075
0.064
0.096

The variation of the head-discharge relationship of

actual discharge QA with head H and predicted
discharge QP with head H are shown in the power
graph form as shown in Figure 3 and 4 respectively.
The best-fitted curve lines are obtained by the
following relationships:
QA = 0.0257H1.592

(2)

QP = 0.0257H1.589

(3)

Equation (2) and (3) show the values of n are not

equal 1.5, in which n =1.592 and 1.589
respectively. Thus, a number of alternative
equations can be written that may fit the actual
discharges or even better than the standard
equation. The values of coefficient of determination
R2 are 0.978 and 0.986 for QA with H and QP with
H respectively, suggesting a very good fit of the
regression model. The values also indicate clearly
the strong positive non-linear relationship between
the discharge and head. The graphs also show a
curve line with positive slopes, means that the weir
head increases exponentially with increasing
discharge.

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Jurnal Intelek (2015) Vol 10(1): 49-54

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PJIM&A, UiTM Perlis

QA (m3/s)

Actual discharge vs weir head

8.000E-04
7.000E-04
6.000E-04
5.000E-04
4.000E-04
3.000E-04
2.000E-04
0.050

y = 0.0257x1.592
R = 0.9778

0.070

0.090

0.110

H (m)
Figure 3: Actual discharge QA plotted against weir head H for head-discharge relationship of contracted
rectangular flat-crested slit weir

Predicted discharge vs weir head

QP (m3/s)

8.000E-04
6.000E-04
y = 0.0257x1.5891
R2 = 0.9862

4.000E-04
2.000E-04

0.050 0.060 0.070 0.080 0.090 0.100 0.110

H (m)
Figure 4: Predicted discharge QP plotted against weir head H for head-discharge relationship of
contracted rectangular flat-crested slit weir
Error in water measurement is commonly expressed
in percent of actual discharge EQA as follows:

E QA

(Q p Q A )100
QA

(4)

where QA (or measured discharge) is the actual

discharge from the device output and QP is the
predicted discharge.
The comparison of actual discharges with
predicted discharges can be seen in Table 2. The
outcome of the result indicate that the ranges of the
absolute error of QP are 0.14% - 7.01% of actual
discharges. The average value of the absolute error
of discharge measurement is 2.1% of actual
discharges for QP as shown in Table 3. In other
words, the accuracy at the point of average error is
97.9% of actual discharges. Aydin et al. (2006) who
was investigated experimentally a contracted
rectangular sharp-crested slit weir in small
discharges obtained the error was + 2.25%. In
addition, most water measuring devices can be
produced accuracies of +1% to +5% (USBR 1997)

and the accuracy of 3% to 8% of the actual

discharges can be obtained for structures with free
flow conditions (Kolkman et al. 1994). As a result,
the values of absolute error are acceptable and the
accuracy of the data for contracted rectangular flatcrested slit weir is good.
The ratio of the actual discharges is compared
with the predicted discharges is denoted by a (
= QA/QP). The results are shown in Table 2. The
range values of is 0.94 1.06 with the average
value of 0.99 as shown in Table 3. If the average
value of equals 1.0, it means the actual discharges
are equal to the predicted discharges. If the average
value of is greater (or less) than 1.0, it means the
actual discharges are greater (or less) than the
predicted discharges. Even though the result shows
the mean value of QP is slightly higher than QA, it
can be said that, the actual discharges are equal to
the predicted discharges. It shows the accuracy of
all types of discharges is good for water flow over a
rectangular flat-crested slit weir. Furthermore, from
the research conducted by Jan et al. (2006) for
compound rectangular sharp-crested weir, the value
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Jurnal Intelek (2015) Vol 10(1): 49-54

ISSN 2231-7716

PJIM&A, UiTM Perlis

of is equal 1.062, which can be in-line with the

findings in this study.

Table 2: Comparison of values of actual discharge and predicted discharge obtained for contracted rectangular
flat-crested slit weir.
Weir height (P), m
Actual discharge (QA)
Predicted discharge (QP)
Error (EQA)
Ratio ()
10-4 m3/s
10-4 m3/s
%
0.035
3.33 6.67
3.43 6.81
2.12 5.52
0.97 1.06
0.040
3.33 6.67
3.45 6.82
0.8 5.19
0.96 1.01
0.045
3.33 6.67
3.37 6.71
0.64 2.50
0.98 0.99
0.050
3.33 6.67
3.37 6.66
0.15 4.06
0.96 1.01
0.055
3.33 6.67
3.34 6.58
0.44 3.26
0.97 1.01
0.060
3.33 6.67
3.32 6.61
0.23 3.45
0.99 1.01
0.065
3.33 6.67
3.28 6.54
0.14 4.64
0.96 1.02
0.070
3.33 6.67
3.34 6.72
0.26 4.99
0.95 1.02
0.075
3.33 6.67
3.27 6.60
0.25 7.01
0.94 1.02
Table 3: Statistical results of discharges for contracted rectangular flat-crested slit weir
Parameters
QA (10-4 m3/s)
QP (10-4 m3/s)
EQA (%)
Mean
5.0
5.03
2.1
1.19
1.19
1.63
Standard deviation ()
0.178
0.178
0.243
Standard error of the mean (m)
The values of QA and QP are very close as shown in
Table 3. The values of mean, standard deviation
and standard error of the mean for the parameters
QP do not differ significantly with QA. The small
values of standard deviation and standard error
mean that the data are clustered closely around the
mean value and it gives an indication that the
accuracy of the measurements is good. The actual
discharges are plotted against predicted discharges

0.99
-

(Figure 5). For the upper part, QA values increase

with increasing values of the head as predicted by
equation (3). The graphs show a similar trend in
positive slope and perfectly linear, validity the
equation developed and the prediction of value QP.
The value of coefficient of determination R2 in
Figure 5 is 0.99, which indicates a strong
relationship between the variables

Actual discharge vs predicted discharge

QA (m3/s)

8.0E-04
7.0E-04
6.0E-04
5.0E-04
4.0E-04

R = 0.9892

3.0E-04
2.0E-04
2.0E-04 3.0E-04 4.0E-04 5.0E-04 6.0E-04 7.0E-04

Qp (m3/s)

Figure 5: Actual discharge QA plotted against predicted discharge QP for contracted rectangular flat-crested slit
weir
data in this study were evaluated. The headdischarge relationships were used to predict the
Conclusions
discharge over the weir. The discharge predicted by
the linear head-discharge relationships has been
The head-discharge relationships of water flows
found to be in good agreement with the actual
over a contracted rectangular flat-crested slit weir
discharges well within a 2.1% error. Hence, the
in predicting discharge values from an experimental
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Jurnal Intelek (2015) Vol 10(1): 49-54

ISSN 2231-7716
accuracy of the obtained predicted discharge is
good. As a result, the contracted rectangular flatcrested slit weir can be designed to measure a small
range of discharges (< 0.00067 m3/s) at various
weir heights to the limits of 6.3 < H/b < 10.4 and
15.75 < H/p < 2.85.

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