Diversion Works

Outline of presentation
1. Introduction
2. Weir and Barrages
3. Basic Design Consideration
 Hydrological analysis
 Hydraulic design
 Structural design

4. Sediment Control
5. Operation and Maintenance
 General Definition of
Headwork
 Headworks are defined as the facility, which diverts water
from a River into a canal for irrigation or water supply.
 Headwork are defined as “A collective term for all works
(weirs or diversion dams, head regulators, upstream and
downstream river training work and their related
structures) required at intakes of main or principal canals
to divert and control river flows and to regulates water
supplies in to the main canals.”
 The diversion demands have to be decided taking into
account the multitude of interacting factors of technical,
environmental, political and aesthetic nature
 WATER DIVERSION
WATER DIVERSION
WATER DEMANDS- Availability: amount, distribution in time, quality
WATER DEMANDS- Availability: amount, distribution in time, quality
parameters, etc
parameters, etc
WATER RESOURSES- Availability: amount, distribution in time, quality parameters, etc
WATER RESOURSES- Availability: amount, distribution in time, quality parameters, etc

Large Scale Water Diversion Schemes Small Scale Water Diversion Schemes
Large Scale Water Diversion Schemes Small Scale Water Diversion Schemes

River System and its Response to Diversion:

River System and its Response to Diversion:
Hydrological Aspects, Hydraulic Aspects, Morphological Aspects, Sediment
Hydrological Aspects, Hydraulic Aspects, Morphological Aspects, Sediment
Transport, Water Quality and Environmental Aspects
Transport, Water Quality and Environmental Aspects

DIVERSION STRUCTURE
DIVERSION STRUCTURE
Type and Location
Type and Location

SEDIMENT EXCLUDER and SETTLLING BASIN

SEDIMENT EXCLUDER and SETTLLING BASIN

WATER CONVEYANCE SYSTEM

WATER CONVEYANCE SYSTEM
Classification of diversion work
Different ways of classifying diversion structures were
developed along the time. Among these the most important
are according to:
a)Hydraulic functions
Diversion weirs
Barrages
Intake structure without regulator works
b) The source
River intakes
In takes from reservoirs and lakes
c)The slope of the river: They are indicated the size of
the intake and the sediment size carried by the river
that is boulder, gravel, sand and silt respectively
when:
Mountain intakes on steep rivers with slopes
greater than about 1:1000
Intakes on plain rivers with slopes 10-4 <s<10-3
Intakes on large rivers with slopes less than 1:10,000
Site selection and interaction with other structures
Site selected for the Headworks should be the optimum after
studying the following items:
Availability of a stable bank at the proposed position of
water intake
Sufficient water intake must be feasible even during the
dry season
Least sediment inflow during water intake
Least effect of weir construction on up and downstream
river
Stability of the structure can be expected with economical
construction costs
Convenience for operation and maintenance.
As far as possible a narrow, straight, well defined channel
confined b/n banks not submerged by the highest flood;
Location should be where appropriate elevation is available
for the off take canal
The material of construction such as stone, sand, etc.
should be available in the vicinity of the site
The site should be easily accessible by road and there
should be (enough) workers available in the vicinity of
project site.
Pondage requirement and interference with the existing
structures such as bridges, urban development and
valuable farm land need to be considered.
Ease for diversion during construction should also be taken
in to consideration while selecting site for head works
Purpose of diversion headwork
It raises the water level in the river so that the
commanded area is increased (for irrigation projects)
It regulates the supply of water in to irrigation or power
canal
It provides storage of water for a short period
It controls the entry of silt in to the canal
It reduces the fluctuations in the level of supply in the
river.
Function of weirs summarized as
Water level management
Flow measurement
Environmental enhancement
Channel stabilisation
Weirs and barrages
Weirs and barrages are permanent river diversion
works and are relatively low dams constructed
across a river to raise the river level sufficiently to
divert the flow in full, or in part, in to a supply
canal or conduit for the purpose of irrigation,
power generation, domestic and industrial uses,
etc.
The storage up stream of this barrier can be
achieved either by the raised crest, in case of weir
or by a raised crest supplemented by gates or
shutters working over the crest, in case of barrage.
Comparison between weir and barrage
Weir
Movable Weir
A movable weir is a structure to secure the required water
level for water intake and safe flow of water by means of
gate operation and ensure safety against the action of
flowing water, etc and other relating external forces
Fixed weir
A fixed weir is such structure as to secure the required water
level at the time of intake, to avoid a considerable obstacle
to floods and to have a section which is safe enough against
external forces and is advantageous from the hydraulic
point of view .
Weir types –cross sections
 Weir body

U/S
wing
wall

Under Downstream
sluice Wing wall
Concrete weir with d/s glacis
It is recent origin and its design is based on sub-
surface flow concept.
Hydraulic jump is developed on the glacis due to
which considerable energy is dissipated.
Protection works such as inverted filter; block
protection and lunching apron are provided.
It can be constructed on pervious foundation.
Sheet piles of sufficient depths are provided both at
upstream and downstream ends of the floor.
Providing shutters controls the flow over weir.
Basic design consideration
Detailed design deals with:
Hydrological Analysis,
Hydraulic and
Structural design of intake weirs, inlets, related
structures and operation & maintenance facilities,
based on the design criteria and dimensions which
are set up in the basic design.
Hydraulic Design of the Weir
Before starting the design of weir it will be interesting
to know the effect the construction of a weir has on
the regime of the river. Following are the main
consequences:
The heading up of water upstream during the major
part of the year leads to flattering of the surface slope
on the upstream side.
As a result of a flattering of slope, silt carrying
capacity of the water decreases, causing the heavier
grade to deposit in upstream pond & form Irregular
shoals.
Data required
The data required for a design of a weir are:
Area of the drainage basin,
length & slope of the main river/gully up to the weir site,
one day maximum point rainfall data,
Maximum Flood discharge that is likely to occur, Minimum
discharge,
Full supply level of canals,
cross section of the river at the weir site, longitudinal
section of the river,
median size of the river bed material etc.
The shape of the weir is decided
based on the practicability and
economy of the structure.
Whether to use rock fill, masonry or
concrete for the construction of the
weir & which weir section to adopt,
broad/sharp crested or ogee weir
depends on the availability of the
construction material, the
workmanship & the cost of
construction.
The shorter the weir the less will be the cost
of the main structure but on account of the
increase in discharge per unit run
The length of waterway is usually
determined from Lacey’s wetted perimeter.
Lacey developed the equations based on the
analysis of large amount of data collected on
several river gullies. The wetted perimeter,
p is given by
It is the difference in water level at
any point upstream of the weir before
& after the construction of the weir.
The Afflux affects the water level
appreciably long upstream of the
weir.
For high afflux the length of the weir
is decreased but the cost of training
works shoots up so that the risk of
failure by scouring & outflanking
increases.
Where:
mr= Median size of the river bed material
as determined from the sieve analysis
All irrigation structures should be designed
against scour which occurs due to surface
flow.
Suitable protection works are provided to
check the possibility of scour holes traveling
close to the impervious floor & damage the
main structure.
The sheet piles & at the upstream &
downstream ends of the impervious
floor should be provided up to the
deepest scour level. According to
Lacey, the Normal Scour R in alluvial
soil is given by:
The water profile of the weir at the
upstream and downstream should be
determined which will be used in
design of the appurtenant structures
of the weir and infixing the dimension
of these structures. Therefore, the
water profile upstream and
downstream of the weir is determined
as follows.
Water Surface Profile downstream of Weir
Once the crest level is decided, it is required to draw
the water profile for the design flood, Q max (For 50
year Return period usually) discharge. The water
profile is required to
Carry out the stability analysis of the weir,
Design the weir structurally,
Design the downstream wing wall and protection
works downstream of the apron.
Determine the sequent depth D1 and D2:
Energy Dissipation below the Weir
Water flowing over the weir has a very high kinetic energy
because of the conversion of the entire potential energy to
the kinetic energy.
.The energy-dissipating device can be broadly classified into
two types.
Devices using a hydraulic jump for the dissipation of energy
Devices using a bucket for the dissipation of energy.
The choice of energy-dissipating device is governed by the tail
water depth & the characteristics of the hydraulic Jump, if
formed, at the toe.
 The hydraulic jump type energy dissipaters dissipate excess
energy through formation of highly turbulent rollers within
the jump.
Diversion weirs are constructed from a variety of
materials. The most commonly used materials are
reinforced concrete,
masonry, and
gabions.
However, whatever materials are used, the structural
analysis remains almost the same.
Bligh’s Theory
Bligh assumed that the interface between the relatively smooth base of
a hydraulic structure and the sub-grade forms an easy path through
which water can flow. This is called the creep path and its length the
creep length.
According to this theory, it is absolutely essential to have a
reasonably deep cutoff at the downstream end of the floor
to prevent piping.
Khosla and his associates gave the mathematical solution for
a composite floor. Usually, a hydraulic structure consists of a
combination of a number of elementary forms.
The uplift pressures obtained from the superposition of the
individual forms are to be corrected because the individual
pressures have been obtained based on the following
assumptions:
The floor is of negligible thickness
There is only one cutoff wall
The floor is horizontal
Causes of failures of weirs on permeable
foundations
The most common causes of failures of weirs constructed on
permeable foundations may be broadly classified into two
categories:
I. Failure due to subsurface flow
The main failures due to the sub surface flow: piping failure,
rupture failure of the apron floor & the exit gradient may be
steeper than the safe GE.
II. Failure due to surface flow
Development of scour holes that travels close to the
impervious floor and damage the main structure & failure
of the structure due to absence of appropriate energy
dissipation downstream of the weir.
Measures to be adopted for the above mentioned
failures
The thickness of the floor should be sufficient to resist the
uplift pressure due to the subsurface flow as the floor is
usually designed as gravity section.
A suitable graded filter should be provided at the
downstream end of the impervious floor to prevent piping
& sufficient creep length has to be provided to keep the
exit gradient safe.
A device is required at the downstream to dissipate &
accommodate the energy due to the surface flow.
Cutoff walls at upstream and downstream ends of the
impervious floor should be provided up to the maximum
scour level to prevent main structure against scour.
• Cutoff walls and aprons are usually provided to prevent the
piping under the structure, and to limit the intensity of the
uplift so that the stability of the structure will not be
threatened.
 Care must be exercised to ensure that the joint b/n the weir
body and upstream apron are properly tied. According to Bligh
theory the required creep length is computed as:
L CH

Where: L = Percolation distance (m)

H = Maximum head (m)
C = Bligh’s percolation Coefficient
 Upstream floor thickness
thickness of upstream apron can be based on practice of
the construction and perfection of leakage proofing 0.5-
1.0m thick is usually sufficient for this purpose in case of
masonry.
Downstream floor thickness
For downstream apron, thickness to be determined
depends on whether static or dynamic cases are being
considered. The lower parts of the apron will generally
require larger thickness when the static case is selected,
while the opposite is true for the toe section of the weir.
Check by Khosla’s theory
 In the above portion the thickness of the floor is
designed based on the Bligh’s creep theory. So the
safe exit gradient and the floor thickness of the
structure will be checked by Khosla’s theory.
 Applying corrections on the key points like
thickness, slope, interference (key points are
junctions of the floor, the pile lines on either side,
the bottom point of the pile line and the bottom
corners in the case of a depressed floor)
Divide Wall
It is masonry or concrete wall with top width of 1.5
to 2.5m constructed at right angles to the axis of
weir and separates the `weir proper` from under
sluices.
The divide wall extends on the u/s side beyond the
beginning of the canal head regulator and on the d/s
side, it extends up to the end of the loos protection
of the under sluices
These walls are founded on well foundation closely
spaced and taken well bellow the deepest possible
scour
The main functions of a divide wall are:
To separate the floor of the under sluices which is
at lower level from the weir proper,
To help in providing a comparatively less turbulent
pocket near the canal head regulator resulting in
deposition of silt in this pocket and, thus to help
entry of silt-free water into the canal;
To isolate the pocket u/s of the canal head
regulator & facilitate scouring operation;
To prevent formations of cross-currents to avoid
their damaging effects on the weir
Design consideration
 Silt pressure up to the full tank level on the pocket
side when the river level is low.
 At this time there is no water on the river side or
the pocket side.


Difference of water pressure of about 0.25 to 2.0m on
both sides depending on the height of the wall.

 
Design of protection work
The concrete floor of a weir or barrage is protected
on the u/s as well as d/s by loose apron.
In the immediate vicinity of the flood, a certain
portion of the loose apron is made non-launching.
The non-launching apron prevents the scour hole
travel close to the floor or sheet pile line;
where as launching apron is designed to launch
along the slope of the scour hole to prevent further
scooping out of the underlying riverbed material.
basic requirements for satisfactory silt
exclusion are:
It draws relatively silt free water from the
top-layers and excludes heavy laden from
bottom layers,
Entry of water is smooth so s to void
turbulence in water & agitating of silt,
It provides a smooth surface by paving or
plastering bed and sides to reduce friction &
give chance to silt in upper layers to settle
down in layers adjacent to the bed from
The purpose of the weir is to create sufficient head to
supply the min irrigation canal with the design
discharge. The design of head regulator should serve
the following objects:
To make the regulation of supply in the canal easy
To control silt entry into the canal
To shut out river floods.
The canal head regulator is usually gated to control
the mount of flow into the canal
Lay Out of Headregulator
• Angle between stream
channel and the diversion
channel, has considerable
effect on the amount of
sediment attracted into the
diversion channel.
• Angle of diversion
between 30o and 45o can be
adopted when a model
study is not available, and
sediment excluder is not to
be provided
Protecting Side Wall
During flood period, flush flood with high velocity
give extreme scour to both banks of the river
where diversion weir is located.
The scouring damage can bring bout bank failure,
increase river sediment content and threaten the
safety of min hydraulic structures in the diversion
weir project.
Therefore Protecting side wall is an essential part
of a diversion weir; which is important to design
properly protecting side wall.
Design Principle
Protecting side wall layout should be determined by
comprehensive studying on
Channel current condition,
Bank geological condition &
Project general layout.
Structural steadiness and normal life span & other
factors should be considered to determine
protecting side wall type & construction materiel &
make it can meet the requirement of easy
construction and relatively low cost as possible.
Bank Protection Length
Bank protection length depends on:
upstream & downstream channel water level of weir site,
Channel current direction & velocity during flood process,
Bank geological condition,
Bank protection type.
The top elevation of protecting side wall is treated
separately on upstream & downstream of overflow weir.
In both cases the top level is:
Upstream protecting Wall = upstream HFL + Free board
Downstream protecting Wall = downstream HFL + Free
board
Sediment Control
An important part of any water resources or water
diversion project is the design of effective sediment
control measures aimed at reduction of sediment yield
from the catchment.
The most important of all the measures to reduce soil
erosion is the land use management and cropping
practices, and these range from arable farming to
forestry.
Depending on topography and intensity of land use
additional engineering works may be necessary.
Terracing, check dam, percolation pond, contour farming,
Degradation of the river bed
Degradation involves the lowering of a river bed
over a long river reach or several reaches and is
often progressive (ongoing).
The lowering is achieved by the reduction of
sediment load or by the lowering of a downstream
control level such as a lake level.
The degradation process can move in a
downstream direction as well as upstream.
Aggradation of the river bed

Aggradation involves the rising of a river-bed

over a fairly long river reach and is usually the
result of an increase in bed load from a diversion
or from sand/gravel dumping into a river system,
or from increased bank erosion upstream.
Alluvial fans are aggradation zones due to the
fact that there is a sharp reduction in velocity
where the river and sediment exit from a gorge
onto an alluvial plain.
There are two distinctly different processes of
aggradations as shown below
General Features of Flow Diversion
Flow patterns
One of the primary design tasks of diversion
structures is to keep the amount of sediment
diverted to a minimum. For this two well-known
hydraulic phenomena are basic
Curved flow paths are associated with secondary
currents;
Increased turbulence increases the sediment
content of flow.
 A partial solution is to control the sediment at the canal
intake or in the main river channel and if sediment
enters the canal then canal structures, such as sediment
ejectors, can be incorporated. The various methods are
summarized and grouped as
Sediment Control within the River – Curvature of a
River
One of the simplest methods for control of
sediment movement at weirs is to locate a weir
near the end of a river bend with the intake on
the outside of the bend, because sediment (bed-
load) generally moves to the inside of the bend.
However, the location of an intake at the outside
of a river bend generally does not solve the
problem of sediment control – it is usually
necessary to add some form of under sluices to
move sediment through the weir.
Role of intake structure in sediment control
The intake structure (or head regulator) is a hydraulic
device constructed at the head of an irrigation or
power canal, or a tunnel conduit through which the
flow is diverted from the original source such as a
reservoir or a river. The main purposes of the intake
structure are
To admit and regulate water from the source, and
possibly to meter the flow rate,
To minimize the silting of the canal, i.e. to control
the sediment entry into the canal at its intake, and
To prevent the clogging of the entrance with
floating debris.
Silt excluder
The silt excluder is a device constructed in the river bed
just upstream of the regulator to exclude silt from the
water (source) entering the canal.
It is so designed that the top and bottom layers of flow
are separated with the least possible disturbance, the
top sediment-free water being led towards the canal
while the bottom sediment-laden water is discharged
downstream of the diversion structure through under
sluices.
The device basically consists of a number of tunnels in
the floor of the deep pocket of the river, isolated by a
dividing wall.
Silt ejector or extractor
The silt ejector is a device constructed on the canal
downstream of the head regulator but upstream of
the settling basin (if any), by which the silt, after it
has entered the canal, is extracted.
Vane type ejector:
Vortex tube type ejector.
Settling basin