Abstract: This research paper demonstrates the distribution of shear stress along the bed of wide open meandering main channel. As a complementary study to experimental investigation the mathematical tool like MATLAB is used. With the aim of obtaining shear stress distribution at the bed, experimental data are analysed with the help of MATLAB. The results of some experimental study are reported concerning the distribution of shear stress in compound meandering channel which is influenced by the secondary flow. The estimation of boundary shear stress distribution is essential to deal with the hydraulic problem such as channel migration, channel design & interaction losses. It is important to understand the behaviour of flows within compound channels for designing the flood control. Preston-tube technique is used to collect velocity heads at various intervals along the wetted perimeter and distributions of boundary shear stress are computed through MATLAB coding.

Keywords: Boundary shear stress, Compound channel, Interaction losses, Preston-tube, Secondary flow, Matlab.