Sluice Gate Design and Calibration: Simplified Models to Distinguish Flow Conditions and Estimate Discharge Coefficient and Flow Rate

Sluice gates are common hydraulic structures for controlling and regulating flow in open channels. This study investigates five models’ performance in distinguishing conditions of flow regimes, estimating the discharge coefficient (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Arash Yoosefdoost, William David Lubitz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
Series:Water
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/8/1215
Description
Summary:Sluice gates are common hydraulic structures for controlling and regulating flow in open channels. This study investigates five models’ performance in distinguishing conditions of flow regimes, estimating the discharge coefficient (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>C</mi><mi>d</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) and flow rate. Experiments were conducted for different gate openings, flow rates, upstream and downstream conditions. New equation forms and methods are proposed to determine <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>C</mi><mi>d</mi></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> for energy–momentum considering losses (EML) and HEC-RAS models. For distinguishing the flow regimes, results indicated a reasonable performance for energy–momentum (EM), EML, and Swamee’s models. For flow rate and discharge coefficient performance of EM, EML, and Henry’s models in free flow and for EM and EML in submerged flow were reasonable. The effects of physical scale on models were investigated. There were concerns about the generality and accuracy of Swamee’s model. Scaling effects were observed on loss factor k in EML. A new equation and method were proposed to calibrate k that improved the EML model’s accuracy. This study facilitates the application and analysis of the studied models for the design or calibration of sluice gates and where the flow in open channels needs to be controlled or measured using sluice gates such as irrigation channels or water delivery channels of small run-of-river hydropower plants.
ISSN:2073-4441