Estimating Manning's roughness coefficient (n) is one of the essential factors in predicting the discharge in a stream. Present research work is focused on prediction of Manning's n in meandering compound channels by using the Group Method of Data Handling Neural Network (GMDH-NN) approach. The width ratio (α), relative depth (β), sinuosity (s), Channel bed slope (S o ), and meander belt width ratio (ω) are specified as input parameters for the development of the model. The performance of GMDH-NN is evaluated with two different machine learning techniques, namely the support vector regression (SVR) and multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) with various statistical measures. Results indicate that the proposed GMDH-NN model predicts the Manning's n satisfactorily as compared to the MARS and SVR model. This GMDH-NN approach can be useful for practical implementation as the prediction of Manning's coefficient and subsequently discharge through Manning's equation in the compound meandering channels are found to be quite adequate.Hydrology 2018, 5, 47 2 of 21 hydraulic parameters. Formulation for Manning's roughness showing the gradient effect in channels having longitudinal slopes greater than 0.002 was derived by Jarrett [7]. Due to variation in flow depth, geometry and slope, the distinction of roughness coefficient in a straight channel as compared to a meandering channel were discussed by Arcement and Schneider [8]. Yen [9] proposed Manning's n for simple uniform flows taking account for a geometric measure, such as unevenness of the edge. Further, SCS method was linearized by James [10] for a meandering channel, named the Linearized SCS (LSCS) and recommended the Manning's roughness value for the different sinuosity channels. Shiono et al. [11] developed a model to predict discharge considering the Manning's n in the case of longitudinal slope and the meander effect of the channel. Jena [12] proposed an equation to calculate the n by considering the effect of channel width, longitudinal channel slope, and the flow depth of the channel. The variations of wetted area, wetted perimeter, and the velocity data on Manning's roughness coefficient by considering the flow simulation and sediment transport in irrigated channels was investigated by Mailapalli et al. [13]. Khatua et al. [14-16] formulated a mathematical equation for roughness coefficients by varying the sinuosity and geometry of the meandering compound channel. Xia et al. [17] and Barati [18-20] carried out the experiments for predicting discharge by taking care of the effect of bed roughness. Dash et al. [21] modeled the Manning's roughness coefficient by considering the aspect ratio, viscosity, slope of the bed, and sinuosity. Pradhan et al. [22] proposed an empirical formulation of predicting Manning's n by dimensional analysis for the compound meandering channel, which affects relative depth, width ratio, longitudinal channel slope, and sinuosity.In the recent years, ML techniques have been successfully implemented for predicting complex phenom...

Designs of buildings are changing with emerging demands of several aesthetical features and efficient design based on geometry. Development of new building materials and construction techniques have enabled us to build new buildings which are tall and unsymmetrical, but unfortunately such structures are more susceptible to wind loads. Thus it becomes necessary to estimate wind loads with higher degree of confidence. Although ample information regarding wind load on symmetrical and regular structure is available in various international codes, they lack the study of effect of wind forces on unsymmetrical structures. This paper presents experimental and numerical studies of the wind effect on commonly used C-shaped buildings with varying aspect ratio and its optimization caused by the alteration of angle of incidence. Furthermore, results obtained by numerical analysis have been validated with the experimental one. For this study, numerical analysis has been carried out using ANSYS Fluent with k-ε model of turbulence. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques is used to evaluate the surface pressure on various faces of the model for angle of attack of 0° to 180° at an interval of 30° in a subsonic open circuit wind tunnel. The results found by CFD technique are well compared with the experimental results which suggest the feasibility of using this technique of predicting wind pressures on building efficiently and accurately.

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