The Froude number is a dimensionless measure of bulk flow
characteristics that represents the relative importance of inertial
forces and gravitational forces. For open channel flow, the Froude
number of open channel flow is defined as $$Fr = \frac{v}{\sqrt{gD_H}}$$
where \(v = \frac{Q}{A}\) is the flow velocity, \(g\) is the gravitational
acceleration and \(D_H\) is the hydraulic depth. The Froude number is related
to the energy state of the flow and can be used to identify flows as
either supercritical (\(Fr < 1\)) or subcritical (\(Fr > 1\)).