1.

0 INTRODUCTION

HEC-RASS is a computer program that models the hydraulic of water flow through
natural rivers and other channels. From time to time, this software has been updated by
developer to be more friendly users. Starting from one-dimensional modelling analysis it has
been upgraded to two-dimensional modelling analysis of flow as well as sediment transfer
modelling capabilities. For information, this software was developed by the US department of
Defence, Army Corps of Engineers in order to manage the rivers, harbour and other public
work under their jurisdiction.

Now, it is widely used by hydraulic engineer in flood management and insurance

studies to evaluate floodway encroachments. Besides, it also applied for designing bridge and
culvert, levee studies and channel modification studies. This software is capable of modelling
subcritical, supercritical and mixed flow regime with the effects of bridges, culverts, weirs
and structure. Steady flow is the basic computational procedure that is based on the solution
of energy equation. Friction and contraction will evaluate the energy losses. The momentum
equation used when water surface profile is rapidly varied such as hydraulic jumps, hydraulic
bridges and evaluating profiles at river confluences.

The task given for our project is to develop a model for a river which connected to
Sungai Sembrong, Kluang. The river is example of natural channels which generally have
varying cross sections and therefore known as non-prismatic channels. This mobile boundary
channels are channels with boundaries that undergo deformation due to the continuous
process of erosion and deposition due to the flow. It is found that flood occurs in this area due
to its higher rainfall intensity and the natural geographic of the river section.

Therefore, the important of this study is to prevent overflow of the water from the
river to ensure flood will not happen during rainy days. Flooding occur due to heavy rainfall
resulting in a large concentration of runoff which is very much in excess capacities of stream.
Extensive areas are often inundated. This happen due to the shape of the river that cannot fill
the water fully that cause the overflow. Besides, this study is to design the suitable shape of
the rivers so it can fully support the water flow in it. By using cross modifications, process of
designing the suitable shape of the river at the cross section happen by cut and fill at some
part of the river.

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1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Several problems had been identified for this project that is: -

i. Higher rainfall intensity in Malaysia had been identified as the major cause of the
flood that roughly happen from October until March.
ii. Geographic nature of the natural stream bed that cause water overflow
iii. Floods causes damage to human property such as house and car
iv. The government have to spend millions ringgit to repair the damages

1.2 OBJEVTIVE

The objective of this project is to: -

i. Identify cause of the flood problem in the study area.

ii. Analyse the effectiveness of river
iii. Provide suggestion to solve flood by section modification

1.3 STUDY AREA

The study was conducted in Sg.Sembrong, Kluang as shown in figure 1. On 22 April

2018, several areas and villagers in Kluang district were hit by flash floods following heavy
rain. The heavy rain which caused water level to rise from about 0.5 meter up to 1.0 meter
(Azahar Ahmad, 2015, New Straits Times). The cause of the flood is due to heavy rain over
the past three days.

Figure 1: Map of Sg. Sembrong, Kluang

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 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review is an analysis of the criticisms of research being conducted on specific

topics or questions on a section of science. It is not a summary of any other study but it is a
scientific story of a particular study problem conducted by others.

2.1 Flood Analysis using HEC-RAS Model, Hafr Al-Batin Saudi Arabia

The previous study of flood analysis at Hafr, Al-Batin is located in the northeast of
Saudi Arabia. In that study, HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS were used to construct the hydrology,
hydraulic and floodplain models.

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 This figure, shown the data collected from this previous study of Hafr, Al-Batin Saudi
Arabia. HEC-HMS is comprehensive hydrologic modelling while HEC-RAS is a window-
based hydraulic model. Generally, water elevation at a location floodplain is a more direct
interest for flood analysis than magnitude of discharge. The model is used to stimulate steady,
gradually varied, rapidly varied, and unsteady one-dimensional flow.

The major steps followed in this study include the construct of IDF curve for Hafr Al-
Batin using HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS model to develop the hydraulic model and generate
flood risk maps for Hafr Al-Batin city.

The results of this study was for small return periods, one peak is observed resulting
from the urban runoff. For larger return periods, the runoff generated from the barren portion
of the catchment becomes very significant and results in a delayed peak, making the outflow
hydrograph bimodal.

The results of this study can be utilized for planning purposes and in the design of
flood control project as it has quantified and the runoff corresponding to different design
storms and used hydraulics and geospatial data in delineating the flood zones.

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3.0 METHODOLOGY

After analyse the problems, we have decided to change the dimension of the river
either to increase the depth, width and side slope by using HEC-RASS software. Data type
used is steady flow data using steady flow analysis. In real practices, the process of cut and
fill is done to change the river dimension. The reason to apply this analysis as the control
point is known that is point along the stream where at least one-point elevation is known so it
can be computed. Next, equation for steady flow does not apply to rapidly varied flow at
bridges, culverts, falls, dams and other special features. Furthermore, the equation also cannot
apply to junction of two or more channel.

Figure 4: Flow line of Sg. Sembrong.

The HEC-RAS program was designed specifically for application in flood-plain

management and flood insurance studies to evaluate floodway encroachment and to simulate
estimated flood. The first taken was to draw the line flow of Sg. Sembrong as shown in figure
4. Then, key in data obtained from figure 5 for every cross section data.

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 Figure 5: Cross-section of every channel and flowrate of the river.

HEC-RAS used a number of input parameters for hydraulic analysis of the stream
channel geometry and water flow. This parameter is used to establish a series of cross section
along the stream. In each cross-section, the location of the stream banks is identified. Based
on figure 6, there are several input parameters use by this software to describe shape,
elevation and relative location along the stream such as river station number, lateral and
elevation coordinates for each terrain point, left and right bank station locations, Manning’s
roughness coefficients, channel contraction and expansion coefficient. HEC-RASS assumes
that the energy head is constant across the cross-section and the velocity vector is
perpendicular to the cross-section.

Figure 6: Example cross section data.

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Next, we inserted steady flow data as shown in figure 7. Insert the discharge value for each
chainage. Reach boundary condition by applied critical value. Then, click applied data. Save
the data to view the cross section either overflow or not.

Figure 7: Example steady flow data and steady flow boundary conditions.

4.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

HEC-RAS are then employed to calculate the optimum cut and fill process. These
programs can be used to calculate any excess fill requirements in advance and add
considerably to the accuracy of preconstruction planning and cost analysis. This process also
serves to minimize a project's total environmental signature because little or no additional,
off-site excavation is required. Figure 8 below show the original cross section at every
chainage with water flow while figure 9 illustrate a profile plot of the river.

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CH 0 (downstream) CH 100

CH 400
CH 300

CH 670 CH 800

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CH 850 CH 900

CH 1000 CH 1250

Figure 8: Original cross-section with water flow.

Figure 9 : Profile plot before modification.

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 Therefore, channel design and modification are the solution to the problem of this
overflow situation. We have change on dimension of the river that was overflow as shown in
figure 10 for each chainage. The process of trial and error is implemented to find the suitable
dimension for the river.

Chainage 1250

Chainage 1000

10
Chainage 900

Chainage 850

11
Chainage 800

Chainage 670

12
Chainage 400

Chainage 300

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 Chainage 100

Chainage 0 (Downstream)
Figure 10: Process to purpose suitable dimension for the river.

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The modification was done on river point with overflow condition. Table below show the
purpose on some changes that we made on the river dimension to prevent flood. We faced
several attempts to get the suitable dimension. As shown in table 3 below, there are
comparison on the cross section of river before and after modification at 10 point involves.

Table 3: Comparison of cross section, before and after modification.

POINT BEFORE AFTER

Ch. 1250

Ch. 1000

Ch. 900

Ch. 850

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Ch. 800

Ch. 670

Ch. 400

Ch. 300

Ch. 100

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Ch. 0

Figure 11: Front view

Figure 12: Left view

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 Cross sectional layout as shown at figure 11,12,13 and 14 is the Sembrong River
generated by HEC-RAS software. Inert level from downstream is much shallow before
modification. The difference of riverbed is varying at every particular length. So, to assure
the river stream passed until 100 years, the inert level will be adjusted based on the suitability
of riverbed limitation. To provide more fluency for water flows during peak time, the level
should be adjusting at least two or three times more than the depth of usual river flow.

Figure 13: Right view

FIigure 14: Profile plot after modification

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5.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the application of HEC-RAS software for flood routing and flood level
forecasting helped a lot to prevent flood to occur that may cause several incidents such as loss
of live and property. Several modifications on the natural channel geometry has been done so
the river can withstand the capacity of water flow during heavy rain. The improvement that
we can do to produce a better result is by building a flood barrier structure such as raised
embankments. For a long time, the river may increase in sediment deposition at the bottom
thus the depth become decrease. This will cause the water to overflow during heavy rain.
Therefore, the embankment can prevent water to overflow and it can stay within a longer
period.

HEC-RAS software also is one-dimensional steady flow, one and two-dimensional

unsteady flow calculations, sediment transport/mobile bed computations and water
temperature/water quality modelling. From this software, data of Rural Stream tributaries was
performed using HEC-RAS software to identify the actual condition of Rural Stream whether
the channel is at critical flow or vice versa. Then, the channel successfully modifies to
analyses the effectiveness of cross section Rural Stream. Lastly, the critical outflow was able
to solve using section modification. Then, suggestion was provided in order to avoid
occurring the overflow of Rural Stream, Johor in the future.

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6.0 REFERENCES

 Otaznick. (2017). Wikipedia. HEC-RAS. Retrieved from:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEC-RAS
 Chong Wing, Chia. (2016). Managing Flood problems in Malaysia. BuletinIngenieur.
Pages 38-43.
 Hakim, akhtar, sultan, etc. (2016). One dimensional steady flow analysis using HEC-
RAS- A case of river Jhelum, Jammu and Kashmir. Retrieved from:
http://dx.doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n32p340
 “Introduction to floodplain zoning simulation models through dimensional approach”
International Journal of Advancement Civil Structure and Environmental
Engineering- IJACSE
 Chow, V.T, (1959) “ Open-channel hydraulic”: New York,McGraw-Hill Book
Co.,680p.

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