A FLOW-SHAPING SLUICE GATE FOR MEASURING AND CONTROLLING WATER FLOW

IN THE UNITED STATES, AGRICULTURE ACCOUNTS FOR OVER 80 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL ANNUAL WATER CONSUMPTION. GROWING METROPOLITAN AREAS ARE PLACING NEW DEMANDS ON EXISTING WATERRESOURCES, REQUIRING THAT AGRICULTURAL IRRIGATION SYSTEMS BEAS EFFICIENT AS POSSIBLE. TO HELP OPTIMIZE THE FLOW DELIVERY OF IRRIGATION SYSTEMS, A COST-EFFECTIVE, ACCURATE FLOW-MEASURING SLUICE GATE FOR CANALSIDE TURNOUT METERING AND CONTROL IS PROPOSED. THIS PROJECT WILL STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF A NEW GATE DESIGN WHICH SIMULTANEOUSLY MEASURES AND REGULATES FLOW. THE APPROACH IS CHARACTERIZED BY UNIQUE FLOW-SHAPING AND NON-INVASIVE VELOCITY MEASUREMENTTECHNIQUES COMBINED WITH A MICROPROCESSOR-BASED CORRECTION ALGORITHM. THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATIONS OF FLOW SHAPING ALTERNATIVES AND VELOCITY TRANSDUCER ARRANGEMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED. BASED ON THESE RESULTS, A MODEL WILL BE DESIGNED, CONSTRUCTED AND TESTED IN A FLOW LOOP OVER A RANGE OF HYDRAULICALLY RELEVANT CONDITIONS. THE RESEARCH WILL SHOW THE RANGE OVER WHICH THE GATE POSITION AND THE VELOCITY OF A SPECIFIC REGION IN THE FLOW PATH WILL CONSTITUTE SUFFICIENT INFORMATION FROM WHICH TO INFER TOTAL FLOW. THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK WILL FORM THE BASIS FOR PHASE II AND PHASE III BY DEFINING THE DESIGN APPROACH FOR A PROTOTYPE.