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USGS Staff -- Published Research US Geological Survey

1-1-1992

Vedernikov's Number as a Measure of Flow

Stability
Cheng-Lung Chen
u.S. Geological Survey

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Chen, Cheng-Lung, "Vedernikov's Number as a Measure of Flow Stability" (1992). USGS Staff -- Published Research. Paper 117.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsstaffpub/117

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Published in Hydraulic Engineering: Saving a Threatened ResourceIn Search of Solutions:
Proceedings of the Hydraulic Engineering sessions at Water Forum 92.
Baltimore, Maryland, August 26, 1992. Published by American Society of Civil Engineers.
This article is a U.S. government work, and is not subject to copyright in the United States.

VEDERNIKOV'S NUMBER AS A MEASURE OF FLOW STABILITY

By Cheng-lung Chen,l Member, ASCE

Abstract

In 1946, Vedernikov developed a stability criterion for uniform

flow in open channels. A global parameter proposed by Vedernikov
has been widely accepted as a measure of flow stability.
Recognizing the significance of the role of the parameter playing in
the stability of open-channel flows, hydraulicians have thenceforth
called it the Vedernikov number. Alternatively, the Vedernikov
number may be considered as an extended form of the Froude number
because it equals the Froude number mUltiplied by an exponent of the
hydraulic radius in the uniform-flow formula and a shape factor of
channel section. A stability criterion can thus be formulated using
the Vedernikov number as follows: When the Vedernikov number
exceeds unity, disturbances created in the flow will amplify, but
when it is less than unity, some (not all) disturbances will
attenuate. The specific state of flow with Vedernikov's number
equal to unity thus represents a limiting case of neutral stability.
The Froude number corresponds to this neutral stability may be
referred to as the stability limit for the Froude number (or often
called the critical Froude number). Therefore, if the Froude number
instead of the Vedernikov number is used in the stability criterion,
the stability limit for the Froude number that has yet to be
determined from the expression of the Vedernikov number replaces
Vedernikov's unity. There are numerous ways to derive the stability
criterion using either the Vedernikov number or the Froude number.
In either case, the stability criterion can vary with the absolute
velocity of disturbance waves, which in turn depends on the velocity
distribution of flow in channels. This paper is aimed to compare
the existing methods in the formulation of the stability criterion,
thereby assessing the importance of the role that the velocity
distribution plays in the stability of open-channel flows.

lHydrologist, u.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, WR,

345 Middlefield Road, MS-496, Menlo Park, California 94025.

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