IRRIGATION

1. Introduction
An Irrigation is the artificial process of supplying water to the soil for the proper growth of Plant and
Crop. In other words, the artificial application of water to the land for supplementing the naturally
available moisture in the root zone of the soil for the purpose of increasing the agricultural
productivity is termed as Irrigation.

2. Scope of Irrigation
 Yield of crops can be increased by irrigation even in the period of low Rainfall.
 Optimum use of water is possible by irrigation to obtain maximum output.
 Farmers can grow two or more crops, if irrigation of water is assured throughout the year
which adds to their prosperity.
 It adds to the revenue of the country, when water tax is taken from farmers for supplying
water.
 Irrigation water may be used as a source of domestic and industrial water supply.
 Irrigation makes the country self-sufficient in food by improving the production.
 Protection from famine, nutrition of population.
 It increase the value of land.
 It increase the ground water table.
 It can generated hydro-electricity and other similar plant.
 Deep and long irrigation canal can be used for navigation purpose.

3. Methods of irrigation

4. Headwork
The works which are to be constructed at the head of the canal in order to divert the river water
towards the canal or to store the river water, so as to ensure a continuous regulated supply of
water, are known as Headwork. In other word, Headwork is a civil engineering term for any structure
at the head or diversion point of a waterway. It is smaller than a barrage and is used to divert water
from a river into a canal or from a large canal into a smaller canal.

4.1 Components of Headwork:

1. Divide Wall :
It is an embankment constructed in the river, U/S of the weir. Its axis is kept at
right angles to the axis of the weir. The embankment is protected from all the sides with the help of
stone or concrete blocks. The divide wall separates weir from under sluices. It extends a little U/ S of
canal regulator and on D/S end up to loose protection of the under sluices. It may be made of
concrete or masonry, with top width of 1.5 m to 3m.

2. Fish Ladder:
Fish ladder is a fish pass provided along the divide wall to enable migrating fishes to
move from U/S to D/S and D/S to U/S direction, in different seasons. Fish ladders are provided onall
such works which hinder their movements. Fish ladder is always located along the divide wall as
some water always remains here.

3. Canal Head Regulator:

It is a masonry or concrete structure, constructed at the head of the canal taking-
off from the river. It is constructed U/S of the under sluices and located in one bank. Its alignment is
kept at angle varying from 90° to 120° with the axis of the weir. The head regulator consists of a
number of spans separated by piers and each span is fitted with a steel gate which can be moved up
or down in the grooves made in the piers, with the help of either manual labour or winches. In old
regulators, the spans used to be quite small, but the modern trend is to use larger spans of 8 to 18 m

4. Under Sluice:
These are openings provided in the body wall of weir or barrage whose function are:

 Transportation of the deposited silt in front of the head regulator at the upstream
side to the downstream. Thus, preventive the bed silt entry into the canal.
 Creating a clear, un-obstructed river channel at the head regulator.
 Reducing the maximum flood level.

5. Still Pocket:
It is the pond created by divide wall to store water which helps to deposition of silt
and regular flow of water into the canal.

6. Silt Excluder:
Silt excluder are those works which are constructed on the bed level of the river
upstream of the head regulator. The clear water enters the head regulator and silted water enters
the head regulator and silted water enter the silt excluder. In this type of work the silt is removed
from the water before it enters the canal.
 7. Silt Ejector:
Silt ejector are also called silt extractors. These are devices which extract the silt from
the canal water after the silting water has traveled a certain distance in the off-taking canal. These
works are constructed on the bed level of canal and a little distance downstream from the head
regulator. Silt ejectors are constructed in the form of settling basin.

8. River training work:

River training works are required near the hydraulic structure in order to ensure the
smooth flow of water in the river. It also helps to fixed the width of river. In the construction of head
works following river training structure are constructed:

i)Guide Bond: This is also known as Bell’s bond. It is constructed parallel to the flow of river near the
hydraulic structure. The main functions are: -Protection of hydraulic structure from the impact of
water. -Controlling and regulating the flow of water near the hydraulic structure.

ii)Marginal Bond: These are earthen embankments or masonry wall constructed to the river along
the banks. They are located near the divergent head works and the main function of marginal bond
is to control the flood and prevent submerged of land and canal behind the hydraulic structure.

4.2 Sketch of Headwork

5. Typical Headwork Structure
5.1 Aqueduct
When the HFL of the drain is sufficiently below the bottom of the canal such that the drainage water
flows freely under gravity, the structure is known as Aqueduct.

 In this, canal water is carried across the drainage in a trough supported on piers.
 Bridge carrying water
 Provided when sufficient level difference is available between the canal and natural and
canal bed is sufficiently higher than HFL.

5.2 Syphon Aqueduct

In case of the siphon Aqueduct, the HFL of the drain is much higher above the canal bed, and water
runs under syphonic action through the Aqueduct barrels. The drain bed is generally depressed and
provided with pucci floors, on the upstream side, the drainage bed may be joined to the pucca floor
either by a vertical drop or by glacis of 3:1. The downstream rising slope should not be steeper than
5:1. When the canal is passed over the drain, the canal remains open for inspection throughout and
the damage caused by flood is rare. However during heavy floods, the foundations are susceptible to
scour or the waterway of drain may get choked due to debris, tress etc.
The structures that fall under this type are:
 Super passage
 Canal siphon or called syphon only

5.3 Super Passage:

The hydraulic structure in which the drainage is passing over the irrigation canal is known
as super passage. This structure is suitable when the bed level of drainage is above the flood surface
level of the canal. The water of the canal passes clearly below the drainage

 A super passage is similar to an aqueduct, except in this case the drain is over the canal.
 The FSL of the canal is lower than the underside of the trough carrying drainage water.
Thus, the canal water runs under the gravity.
 Reverse of an aqueduct
5.4 Falls:
Irrigation canal are constructed by some permissible bed slopes, so that there is no silting and
scouring in the canal bed. But it is not always possible to run the canal at the desired bed slope
through-out the alignment. Sometimes the ground surface may very step where bed level cannot be
maintained. It requires excessive earthwork in filling to maintain the slope. In such a case, vertical
drops or falls are provided to avoided excessive earthwork in filling. Such vertical drops are called
canal falls.

6. Canal Lining:
Canal lining is the process of reducing seepage loss of irrigation water by adding an
impermeable layer to the edges of the trench. Seepage can result in losses of 30 to 50 percent of
irrigation water from canals, so adding lining can make irrigation systems more efficient.

Types of Canal Lining :

 Reinforced Cement Concrete lining:

 Plain Cement Concrete Lining:
 Prefabricated Cement Concrete Lining:
 Shotcrete Lining:
 Brick or Tile Lining:
 Asphalt Concrete Lining:
 Stone Slab Lining:
 Soil-Cement Lining:
 Compacted / Stabilized Earth Lining:
 Exposed Membrane Lining:
 Buried Membrane Lining:
7. COMPONENTS OF IRRIGATION SYSTEM /CANAL SYSTEM
 a. HEAD WORK :
The headwork comprise of all the works to store, divert and
regulate supplies in to the canal .

b. CANAL NETWORK :
It may consist of main canal, branch canal, distributaries,
water course etc .

c. STRUCTURES IN CANALS :
If consists of cross drainage structures canal falls, canal
escapes, cross regulatory, distributary head regulators outlets etc .

1. CROSS DRAINAGE STRUCTURES :

These are structures constructed at the
crossing of canal and natural drainage so as dispose of drainage water taker place
without interrupting the continuous canal supply .
2. CANAL FALL :
Whenever the available natural ground slope is steeper than the design
slope , the differences is adjusted by slope , the differences is adjusted by a fall
structures called canal drop or canal fall .

3. CROSS REGULATORS :
If is a structure provided on the parent channel just
downstream of the off take point of the off taking channel to raise water level in
the parent channel so that the full supply can be taken into off taking channel
even when the parent channel is running full .

d. DISTRIBUTARY HEAD REGULATOR :

A distributary head regulator is provided at
the head of each distributor and branch canal .

e. OUTLET :
An outlet is usually pipe embedded in the bank of channel with
discharging capacity in proportion to the area to be controlled from that canal .
8. CLASSIFICATION OF IRRIGATION CANALS
The irrigation canal can be classified in different ways on the basis of various
considerations such as :

8.1 Classification based on nature of source of supply

a. Permanent canal : A permanent canal is the one which is fed by a
permanent source of supply . It is a well graded channel and is provided with
permanent regulation and distribution works .The permanent channel may
be further classified as :
 Perennial canal
 Non-perennial canals

b. Inundation canals : An inundation canals is a canal which gets its supplies

only when the water level in the river, from which it takes off, rises during
floods .
8.2 CLASSIFICATION BASED ON THE FUNCTION OF THE CANAL
a. Feeder canal : A feeder canal is a canal which is constructed only to feed
another canal . No direct irrigation is carried out from a feeder canal .
b. Carrier canal : A carrier canal is a canal which is used both for direct
irrigation and for feeding water into another canal .

8.3CLASSIFICATION BASED ON DISCHARGE

a. Main canal
 It is the principal canal of a network of irrigation canals.
 It takes off at headworks directly form river or a reservoir or from the
tail end of feeder canal .
 It is a large capacity canal which supplies water to branch canals and
major distributaries .
 Direct irrigation is not usually carried out from it since a very high
discharge is conveyed though the main canal .

b. Branch canal
 Branch canal is usually called as branches that takes off water from the
main canal on either side .
 From large branches, direct irrigation is not generally done but from
the smaller branches direct outlets may be provided to cover areas by
irrigation .
 The branch canals generally carry a discharge of over’s m³/s.
c. Major distrubutary
 Major distributaries are the irrigation canals which take off from the
branch canals and sometimes also from the main canal.
 They carry a discharge verying from 0.25 m³/s.
d. Minor distributary
 Minor distributaries are the irrigation canals which take off from
mmajor disributaries and branch canals.
 They carry discharge less than 0.25 m³/s.
e. Water courses or field channels
 Water courses are small channel which carry water from the outlets
of major or minor distributary or a branch canal to the outlets of a
major or minor distributary or a branch canal to the field to be
irrigated.
 Outlets are provied in the irrigation canal at appropriate places.
NUMERICAL
Design an irrigation channel to carry 50 m³/s of discharge . The channel is to be laid at a
slope of 1 in 4000 . The critical velocity ratio for the soil is 1.1. Use kutter’s rugosity
coefficient as 0.03 .
Solution :
Given that ,
Dischatge (Q) = 50 m³/s
Bed slope (S)=1:4000
Critical velocity ratio (m) = 1.1
Kutter’s rugosity cofficient (n) =0.023
Assume side slope (z:1)=1/2:1
Critical velocity (Vo)=0.55*m* y 0.64 (Take D=y)
Traal 1
Assume a depth equal to 2.8m
Vo = 0.55 *1.1*2.80.64
=0.605*1.189
=1.147 m/s
Area (A)=Q/Vo=50/1.147=43.5m²
We know,
For side slope (Z:1=1/2:1)
Area (A)=BD+D²/2
Or, 43.5=B*2+2.8²/2
Or, 43.5=2B
B= 14.14m
Also,
Wettad Perimeter (P) = B +D √ 5
Or, p = 14.14+2.8*√ 5
P = 20.40m.
Hydraulic Radius (R) = Area (A)/Perimeter (P)
= 43.5/20.40 = 2.13m.
Also,we know from kutter’s Equation

V = 1/n + (23+0.00155/S) * √ Rs
1 + (23+0.00155/S)*n/√ R

V = 1/0.23+(23+0.00155/1/4000) * √ 2.13∗1 /4000

1 + (23+0.00155/1/4000)*0.23/√ 2.13
= 1.148m/s ~ 1.147m/s. V =Vo

Hence, the dimensions of a trapezoidal channel section are :

 Depth (D) = 2.8m
 Breadth(B)=14.14m
 Side slop (S:1) = 4000:1
 Design velocitr (V)=1.147m/s
CROSS-SECTION OF A CANAL IN CUTTING, FILLING AND BALANCE