GEP Modeling of Penetration Depth in Sharp Crested Weirs

Aeration in the waters of rivers and streams is very important to the existence and quality of aquatic life. Aeration is the process by which the area of contact between water and air is increased, either by natural methods or by mechanical devices. Contact time between water and air is also very important. Increasing the contact time of air bubbles is proportional to penetration depth of air bubbles. As the contact time between bubbles and water body increases, the aeration performance increases. In this study, the penetration depth of sharp crested weirs is modeled by using Genetic Expression Programming (GEP). The obtained models are tested with experimental data. The test results indicate that for the model equations obtained, the determination coefficients (R (2)) are very high. We conclude that GEP can be successfully used for estimating penetration depth in sharp crested weirs.