SEDIMENT MANAGEMENT IN HYDROELECTRIC PROJECTS

Withdrawal of water from a river into a canal involves the construction of a barrage or a dam across the river depending on whether the river is perennial or not. The design of the reservoir upstream of the dam and of the canal requires consideration of the sediment load carried by the river in case the river is sediment-laden. The basic equations concerning morphological changes in such rivers are discussed with particular reference to computation of reservoir sedimentation. The hydraulics of lined canals carrying wash load is examined from the point of view of limiting transport capacity and changes in frictional resistance. Lastly, the methods of design of sediment extraction devices like settling basins and vortex chambers are presented.