Journal of Water and Land Development

Abstract

More than 4.6 mln ha in the Russian Federation are irrigated. Their culvert hydraulic structures are part of network structures and are the most widespread. After the crisis of the 1990s, proper maintenance of many reclamation systems was impossible due to a lack of funds. This led to the loss of about half of the water taken from irrigation sources in irrigation canals. The planned increase in the technical level of irrigation systems requires the automation of the operation of both the entire system as a whole and separately located culverts. This will avoid significant losses of water supply for irrigation and prevent water shortages with the insufficient discipline of water users. Means of hydraulic automation of water supply are being installed on small irrigation canals in Russia. A water flow regulating valve is proposed, with no mechanical movinparts, and gates are not involved in the control process. The operation of the structure is based on the injection effect, in which excess water entering the downstream with a decrease in water consumption begins to circulate between the outlet section of the transit pipe and the diffuser at the end section of the valve. Using the methods of measuring hydrodynamics and the theory of jet devices, theoretical dependences were obtained, which make it possible to determine the main hydraulic characteristics of the structure. The design form of the flow part of the regulator has been developed and a physical model has been made. In a mirror hydraulic flume, the operation modes of the water outlet were studied with and without regulation. The actual values of hydraulic parameters were obtained, which confirmed the validity of the use of theoretical dependencies. The discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental results is within the experimental error. It has been proven that it is possible to circulate excess water between the downstream and intermediate pools of the regulator.