Numerical Canal Seepage Loss Evaluation for Different Lining and Crack Techniques in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Case Study of the River Nile, Egypt

Abstract

Owing to the potential negative impacts of climatic changes and the grand Ethiopian renaissance dam, water scarcity has become an urgent issue. Therefore, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has started a national project of the lining and rehabilitation of canals, to reduce seepage losses and for efficient water resource management. This study presents a new approach for assessing three different lining and crack techniques for the Ismailia canal, the largest end of the river Nile, Egypt. A 2-D steady state seep/w numerical model was developed for the Ismailia canal section, in the stretch at 28.00–49.00 km. The amount of seepage was significantly dependent on the hydraulic characteristics of the liner material. The extraction from aquifers via wells also had a considerable impact on the seepage rate from the unlined canals; however, a lesser effect was present in the case of lined canals. The concrete liner revealed the highest efficiency, followed by the geomembrane liner, and then the bentonite liner; with almost 99%, 96%, and 54%, respectively, without extraction, and decreasing by 4% for bentonite and geomembrane liners during extraction; however, the concrete lining efficiency did not change considerably. Nevertheless, the efficiency dramatically decreased to 25%, regardless of the lining technique, in the case of deterioration of the liner material. The double effect of both deterioration of the liner material and extraction from the aquifer showed a 16% efficiency, irrespective of the utilized lining technique.

Critical attributes and considerations for selecting irrigation systems for wastewater

“…This criterion measures how much of the wastewater would find its way back to pollute surface or ground waters or how much irrigation water would be lost during conveyance to the field. According to Elkamhawy (2021), seepage losses may consume up to approximately 14 % of the total water supplied to an irrigation scheme. A major priority when selecting irrigation systems suitable for wastewater irrigation is to limit water losses along the conveyance channel.…”

The effect of lining hydraulic properties on the efficiency and cost of irrigation canal reconstruction

“…Modelling the seepage from polluted drains using geomembranes and concrete as a lining material reduced the extension of contaminants by 91.4 and 93% respectively compared with the natural condition (Abd-Elhamid et al, 2019). Numerical model used in irrigation canal revealed that concrete and geomembrane cause reduction of seepage 99 and 96 presents respectively, and utilized lining technique roles signi cantly impact of e ciency of lining material (Elkamhawy et al, 2021). In both cases, hydraulic conductivity of coating materials role the major factor for decreasing the seepage lose but the experimental study conducted by (Han et al, 2020) showed lower results under the in uence of natural and arti cial factors within some service time.…”

Modeling and Analysis of Cutoff Wall Performance Beneath Water Structures by Feed-Forward Neural Network (FFNN)

“…Nevertheless, the equation is difficult for complicated engineering practices, so difficult integrals were present [13]. Thus, to overcome the complexity of solving Laplace equations and the low accuracy of other methods, particularly when dealing with complex boundary conditions, numerical solutions based on a finite element approach have been widely used recently [14,15]. Numerical solutions based on the finite element method have proven to be an effective technique for calculating uplift pressure, seepage flow, and exit gradient under hydraulic structures.…”