PROCEDURE

Note: As we discussed previously in elass, every HEC-RAS project is defined by the following files.

Extension: File Description

PRJ Main Project File

G** Geometry File

F** Steady Flow File

p** Plan File

R** Run File (contains results)

O** Output File (used to create graphs and tables)

With the ** ranging from 01 to 99

During our practice, this manual will refer to menus as< menu name> and sub-menus will be
referred to as

<menu name>. sub-menu

I. Project 1: Single Triangular Channel Steady Flow

1. Start HEC-RAS

pouble click on the HEC-RAS short cut icon HEC-RAS 3,1.2, or if the icon is not available on your
desktop try

to find it under <Start>.< all Programs>. <HEC>. HEC-RAS3.2.1

2.3 Enter the following information

Title: Trapezoid

File Name: Trapezoid.prj

And click OK

3. Start Building the Model

Select <Edit>. Geometric Data. This should start the Geometric Data interface seen below

River

Reach

4.1 Click on River Reach button to drawa reach

With curssor in the draw screen, start near the ton.

left corner and draw a line to the button-right corner. Double click to end the reach

Note: Clicking once while drawing allows you to change direction and give the stream a new vertex.
We are
not doing this. Our stream is represented by a straight line.

4.2 Enter River and Reach Names as following.

River: Trapezoid

Reach: Main

5. Adding a Cross Section to Reach

We will now add cross section information to our channel.

5.1 Click on the Cross Section Editor button. This will start the Cross Section Data

interface.

5.2 In the Cross Section Data interface select <Options>. Add a New Cross Section

5.3 A dialogue will ask you enter a new river station. Enter 1.0

Note: Station must have numbers not names. HEC-RAS will assign the lowest station number to the

downstream end of the stream, Our stream will be 800 ft long and we will initially have 9 cross
sections

equally spread at 100 ft distance along the channel.

5.4 Entering Cross section information

In the spreadsheet (Cross Section X-Y Coordinates) on the left side interface enter the following
cross section

Coordinates

Station

Elevation

30

50

70

4.

90

120

A trapezoidal channel with 10:1 side slope 30:1 bank slope and 20 ft button width
In the Manning's n Values: enter 0.042 for left overbank, 0.035 for Channel and 0.043 for Right

Overbank

In the Main Channel Bank Station: enter 30 for left bank station and 90 for right bank station.

Leave the Con/Exp Coefficients values at their default 0.1 for Contraction and 0.3 for Expansion

Leave the Downstream Reach Length values blank. This is the last D/S station and there are no
points below

it.

Click on Apply Data button and you should see your cross section and its information as following

6. Copying Cross Section to Upstream and Interpolating Cross Sections

Our channel has a constant cross section, 0.005 slope and an 800 ft length. Since the cross section
remains

the

same, we will first copy the information into the upstream point, which will be assigned a station
9.0.

Second,

we will raise the station by 4 ft (4/800= 0.005). Finally we will interpolate between the two stations
at equal

intervals to create a total of 9 cross sections each at its appropriate elevation.

6.1 Copying Cross Section. In the Cross Section Data interface, select

<Options>. Copy Current Cross Section

This should start a new dialogue box requesting the station to copy the cross section to, enter 9.0

The new cross section is loaded into the editor (check the River Sta: field, it should have 9.0)

6.2 Raising the cross section at station 9 by 4 ft: In the Cross Section Data interface,

select< Options>. Adjust Elevations and enter 4 in the new dialogue

Once you click OK, notice the changed elevations at station 9. The new cross section should look like

Station

Elevation

11.

30

10.

50

8.
70

90

10.

120

11

6.3 Entering Downstream Distances: In the spreadsheet's Downstream Reach Lengths, enter 800 ft
for the

LOB,

Channel, and ROB. This should complete the copying.

6.4 Interpolating Cross Sections:

Go back to the main Geometric Data editor interface (where you

drew the channel) and select < Tools >-< XS Interpolation Within Reach

And fill the new dialogue information as following

Upstream Riv Sta: 9.0

Downstream Riv Sta: 1.0 Maximum Distance between XS's: 100

Leave the other information intact

Click Interpolate XS's

Click Close.

Note: Notice that all interpolated cross sections have a (*) next to the station

number. This means that they are considered temporary cross sections. They

can be made permanent by deleting the (*) from their names in the cross

section editor. We will not do this for now, but we will do so for certain cross

sections at later stages of the next project.

6.5 Save Geometry Data:

In the Geometric Data Interface, select < File>. Save Geometry Data

In the Save Geometry Data As dialogue, the file name is selected automatically. Do not change that.
But you

may want to enter a title such as

Simple Channel No Structure

Click OK. The main HEC-RAS Window should now show you a couple of new information

7. Enter Steady Flow Data:

As we discussed earlier, we are going to model the reach under steady flow conditions. To do so, we
first

need to enter steady flow data. From the main HEC-RAS control (seen above), select < Edit > . Steady
Flow

Data

The Steady Flow Data dialogue will appear

7.1 Entering Inflow Rate: For steady flow conditions we need to know the inflow at each upstream
end of our

river. In our case, we have only one upstream point. Therefore we need to provide inflow rate at this
point.

Under Profile Names and Flow Rates, enter 65

(65 cfs)

7.2 Selecting and Entering Boundary Stream Condition: In the Steady Flow Data editor, click on the
Reach

Boundary Conditions button. There are several options available to us, these are

Use Known Water Surface Elevation

-Critical Depth, determined by size of channel

- Normal Depth defined by channel shape.

slope, and flow

Rating Curve (user defined)

HEC-RAS will normally set these automatically

At this stage, given no other information, we will select the Normal Depth at the downstream point.
First

make sure that the Downstream fleld is highlighted, and click on the Normal Depth. A dialogue will
ask you

to enter the downstream slope for Normal Depth. Use the channel bed-slope for that, which is
0.005. And

click OK.

In the Steady Flow Boundary Condition window, click OK.

From the steady flow editor, select <File> . Save Flow Data

The name will be automatically selected, you need to enter a title. Enter US-Q DS-Normal and Click
OK

From the steady flow editor, select <File> . Exit Flow Data Editor
We are now ready to conduct our first HEC-RAS Simulation study

8. Simulate Water Surface Profile:

In the HEC-RAS control interface, select < Run>. Steady Flow Analysis

This should initiate the following dialogue

The name of your plan may be different (Plan 01) Accept it, make sure that the Geometry file is the

right one as well as the steady flow file. Also make sure that you have the Subcritical Flow Regime

checked (We need different boundary condition for the superctritical or mixed flow regimes)

Click the Compute button. It should finish computing. Again on some XP system, you may need to
push the

stop button. If you see a "Finished Steady Flow Simulation", you are OK. Close, and exit steady state
analysis

dialogue

9. View Results:

In the main HEC-RAS control, select <View> .Cross Sections

Profiles

Rating Curves (multiple profiles)

X-Y-Z Perspective (3-D)

These are the ones applicable to our case

Cross Section View:

You can move from one station to another using the arrows

Profile Plot:

Here we have only one plot. If we were running multiple profiles, we could go

through them as well.

X-Y-Z Prespective Plotd

Using rotation angle and the azimuth angle slider, we can change the view perspective..

CEE 173/273 winter 2012

HEC-RAS Practice

T dis Iz:argo of Goowin River is tstured t ti e fs. Tlue dsiwiistpeatnt

lh is 800 tout losng. with oletation ditreare it 4 It Inttreeqr ap estman (u/s)

and dowustrecum fd/s). tiven tlhe informcdtion Indots, eale ulate thee wafer surfare

ilin the dwustrean rem h (stecady tlow)

st.tt
Elt

Channel Slope = 0,005

Channel Length = 800 ft

Right Overbank{ROB)

Left verbank ( LOB)

Main

0.85

043

0.04

Solution:

Note: As we discussed previously in class, every HEC-RAS project is defined by the following files

File Description

Main Project File

Geometry File

Steady Flow File

Plan File

Run File (contains results)

Output File (used to create graphs and tables)

Extension

PR

G**

F**

P**

R*

With the ** ranging from 01 to 99

During our practice, this manual will refer to menus as < menu name > and sub-menus will be
referred to as

< menu name > sub-menu

I. Project 1: Single Triangular Channel Steady Flow

1. Start HEC-RAS

Detailed Output table: you can go through profiles

Profile Summary Table:

10. Generate Report

< File> . Generate Report

Change file name to Trapezoid_Simple.rep

Check box cross section tables from specific tables list

Cross Section