Water Conveyance System Design Guidelines DoED
e) For not allowing the entry of rainwater from the sloppy terrain to headrace canal, the
provision of catch drain in the side of upstream slopes is essential.
• Canal Alignment
The practical alignment is the economically shortest route. It will lie in between the routes following
the contour of the side hill from dam / weir to forebay with a minimum excavation or fill and a straight
line between dam / weir and forebay which would usually result in excessive cuts and fills.
• Basic Geometry
The design of a power canal as with any design problem, aims at determining the size and
configuration that meets the criteria for the least cost. The best form of cross-section of a canal is a
section which gives maximum discharge for a minimum cross-section for a given bed slope. The
cross-section should also correspond to the section with the least loss of water from absorption (i.e.
with minimum of wetted perimeter) and evaporation (considered only if the canal is very big in size
and alignment is located in very hot and low humid area). Theoretically, a circle for a closed canal, a
semi-circle for open canal, half a square (i.e. depth equal to half the width) for rectangular canal and
semi-hexagon for trapezoid canal are the best discharging canals. In practice for ease of construction,
cross-sections close to the theoretical one will have to be adopted. Depending upon the location,
humidity and size of the canal, an evaporation loss is considered∗.
In the Nepalese conditions, the derivation type of hydropower projects have prospects in the
mountainous regions, because in the Terai region very little head could be concentrated at a given
location even with very long water conveyance system. The terrain conditions in the mountainous
regions are such that there are topographical limitations for constructing wide, but shallow canals. On
the other hand for irrigation development which has larger prospect in the Terai, due to flatness of
topography, wide and shallow canals will have more prospect. Thus, the topographical conditions
could be considered as the major criteria for determining whether the canal should be shallow or
deep.
The most efficient proportions of the rectangular, trapezoidal and parabolic canal are:
For rectangular Canal
b = 2h ---------------------------------------------------------- (3.3)
R = A/ P = h/ 2 ---------------------------------------------------------- (3.4)
For the case of section that is relatively wide in comparison with depth (Width>25 x depth),
R= h, more generally the value of R is between h and h/2.
For trapezoidal canal
b
h
(
= 2 1+ z2 − z ) ----------------------------------------------------------- (3.5)
Where,
b = Width of the canal
h = Depth of the canal
z = Side slopes
R = Hydraulic radius
P = Wetted perimeter, and
A = Area
∗
Please refer “Hydrology in Practice” Elizabeth M. Shaw – Third Edition – Stanley Thornes Publishers Ltd.
United Kingdom, for the calculation of absorption and Evaporation losses in headrace canal.
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