Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.

lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

Regulator
These include the cross regulator and the distributary head
regulator structures for controlling the flow through a parent canal
and its off-taking distributary as shown in Figure below. They also
help to maintain the water level in the canal on the upstream of the
regulator. Canal regulators, which are gated structures, may be
combined with bridges and falls for economic and other
considerations, like topography, etc.
A typical view of a distributary head regulator and a cross regulator
(shown partly in section) is illustrated in Figure below.

Canal Head Regulator: Any structure constructed to regulate the

discharge, full supply level or velocity in a canal is known as a
regulator work. This is necessary for the efficient working and
safety of an irrigation channel. A canal head regulator regulates
the supplies of the offtaking channel and the present channel
respectively. The head regulator is provided at the head of the
distributary and controls the supply entering the distributary.
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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

Cross regulator: A regulator provided on the main channel at the

downstream of the offtake to head up the water level and to enable
the off-taking channel to draw the required supply is called a Cross
Regulator.
In the figure, the gates and gate hoisting arrangements have not
been shown, for clarity.
Further, the floor of the regulators would be protected on the
upstream and downstream with concrete blocks and boulder
apron. A typical sectional drawing through a regulator is shown in
Figure below.

The angle at which a distributary canal off-takes from the parent

canal has to be decided carefully. The best angle is when the
distributary takes off smoothly, as shown in Figure (a). Another
alternative is to provide both channels (off-taking and parent) at an
angle to the original direction of the parent canal (Figure b). When
it becomes necessary for the parent canal to follow a straight
alignment, the edge of the canal rather than the centre line should
be considered in deciding the angle of off-take (Figure c).

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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

Design Criteria
1. Waterway
The effective waterway of head regulator should not be less than
60% of bed width of off-taking channel and mean velocity should
not exceed 2.5 m/sec.

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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

2. Crest level
Crest level of the distributary head regulator is generally kept 0.3
m to 0.6 m higher than crest level of cross regulator (C.R.). The
crest level of C.R. is provided at bed level of parent canal.
He should be worked out from the formula:-
Q=C d Le H 3e /2
Where:-
Q = discharge in m3/s
Cd = Coefficient of discharge
Le= Effective waterway
He= required head over crest for passing discharge Q, in meters

The coefficient Cd is not constant but depends on many factors

(refer Figure 7) such as head above sill, shape and width of sill
(W), upstream slope (Zu) and downstream slope (ZD) of the sill,
height above the upstream floor (P) and roughness of the surface.

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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

A typical set of curves for finding Cd at different values of He/P but

for Z1=0 and Z2=2 is shown in Figure 7. Different sets of curves
are available for Z1=0 and Z2=3, the details of which may be found
in IS: 6531-1994. Of course, as the submergence increases, the
coefficient of discharge Cd also reduces. (Here, Hd is the different
between U.S and D.S level and He is the upstream total head
above crest). The discharge reduction coefficients for various
degrees of submergences are shown in Figure 8.

When the outflow is controlled by partial opening of the gates of

the head regulator, the discharge formula for submerged sluice
flow has to be used, which is as follows:

3 3
2
Q= √ 2 g Cd Le ( H 12 −H 22 )
3

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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

Q = discharge (in m3/s)

Cd = coefficient of discharge
Le = effective waterway (in meters)
H1 and H2 = total heads to the bottom and top of orifice

The width of the sill has to be kept according to the requirements

of gates, trash rocks and stop logs subject to a minimum of 2/3 He,
where He is the total upstream head above crest.

The edges of the sill have to be rounded off with a radius equal to
He. The upstream face should generally be kept vertical or sloped
at 1:1 and the downstream sloped at 2H:1V or flatter.

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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

Determination of waterway; number and width of spans

The waterway should be adequate to pass the required discharge
through the head regulator without difficulty. After deciding the
effective waterway the total waterway between the abutments
including the piers have to be estimated from the following
formula:-
Lt =Le +2 ( N K p + K a ) H e + W p

Lt = total waterway
Le = effective waterway
N = number of piers
Kp = pier contraction coefficient
Ka = abutment contraction coefficient
He = head over crest, and
Wp = total width of all piers

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Hydraulic Structure Engineering A.lecture Ali Hussein Jaber

Example
Design a cross regulator and a suitable head for a distributary
which takes off at an angle of 60º from a canal which discharges
120 cumec.
Discharge of distributary = 10 cumec
Bed width of distributary = 10 m
Water depth of distributary = 1.2 m
Full supply level of distributary = El. 310.2 m
Full supply level of parent channel (F.S.L.) U.S. 311.00 m
D.S. 310.85 m
Bed width of parent channel U.S. 60 m, D.S. 56m
Depth of water in parent channel U.S and D.S are 2m.
Use round piers with width 1.6 m and square abutment with width
1 m, gate width of cross regulator 7m , gate width of head
regulator 3m