Contents:

Meaning of Irrigation Canals

Design of Stable Irrigation Canals
Alignment of Irrigation Canals
Full Supply Discharge of Irrigation Canals
Longitudinal Section of Irrigation Canals
1. Cross-Section of Irrigation Canals

Project Report # 1. Meaning of Irrigation Canal:

An irrigation canal carries water from its source to agricultural fields. Canals
used for transport of goods are known as navigation canals. Power canals
are used to carry water for generation of hydroelectricity.

A feeder canal feeds one or more canals. A link canal links the two canals
so that, if required, water of one canal can be diverted to the other canal
through the link canal. A given canal can serve more than one function.

Based on the nature of source of supply, a canal can be either a permanent

or an inundation canal. A permanent canal has a continuous source of water
supply. Such canals are also called perennial canals.

An inundation canal (or non-perennial canal) draws its supply from a river
only during the high stages of the river. Such canals do not have any head-
works for diversion of river water to the canal, but are provided with a canal
head regulator. An irrigation canal system consists of canals of different
sizes and capacities.
Accordingly, the irrigation canals are further classified as:

(i) Main canal,

(ii) Branch canal,

(iii) Major distributary,

(iv) Minor distributary, and

(v) Watercourse (or field canal).

The main canal takes its supplies directly from the river through the head
regulator and acts as a feeder canal supplying water to branch canals and
major distributaries. Usually, direct irrigation is not carried out from the
main canal.

Branch canal (also called ‘branches’) takes its supplies from the main canal.
Branch canals generally carry a discharge higher than 5 m3/s and act as
feeder canals for major and minor distributaries. Large branches are rarely
used for direct irrigation. However, outlets are provided on smaller branches
for direct irrigation.
Major distributaries (also called distributaries or rajbaha) carry 0.25 to 5
m3/s of discharge. These distributaries take their supplies generally from the
branch canal and sometimes from the main canal. The major distributaries
feed either watercourses through outlets or minor distributaries.
Minor distributaries (also called ‘minors’) are small canals which carry a
discharge less than 0.25 m3/s, and feed the watercourses for irrigation. They
generally take their supplies from major distributaries or branch canals and
rarely from the main canals. A watercourse is a small canal which takes its
Project Report # 2. Design of Stable Irrigation Canals:
Irrigation canals generally have alluvial boundaries and carry sediment-
laden water. A hydraulic engineer is concerned with the design,
construction, operation, maintenance and improvement of irrigation canals.
Irrigation canals should be stable over a period of their life span.

According to Lane, a stable channel (or canal) is an unlined earth

channel:
(a) Which carries water,

(b) The bed and banks of which are not scoured objectionably by the flowing
water, and

(c) In which objectionable deposits of sediments do not occur. Sediment is

a loose non-cohesive material through which a river or channel flows. In
other words, sediment is the fragmental material transported by, suspended
in, or deposited by water or accumulated in the bed of a river.

This means that silting and scouring in a stable channel should balance each
other over a reasonable period so that the bed and banks of the channel
remain unaltered. The cross-section of a stable alluvial channel would
depend on the flow rate, sediment transport rate and the sediment size.
Regime methods are commonly used for the design of alluvial channels
carrying sediment-laden water.
(i) Regime Methods:
Regime methods for the design of stable channels were first developed by
the British engineers working for canal irrigation in India in the 19th
century. At that time, the problem of sediment deposition was one of the
major problems of channel design in India.

In order to find a solution for this problem, some of the British engineers
studied the behaviour of such stretches of the existing canals where the bed
was in a state of stable equilibrium. These stable reaches had not required
any sediment clearance for several years of the canal operation. Such
channels were called regime channels.

These channels generally carried a sediment load, usually measured in terms

of concentration defined as the ratio of weight (or volume) of solids and
weight (or volume) of sediment-water mixture expressed either in
percentage or parts per million (ppm), smaller than 500 ppm. Suitable
relationships for the velocity of flow in regime channels were evolved.

These relationships are now known as regime equations which find

acceptance in other parts of the world as well. The regime relations do not
account for the sediment load and, hence, should be considered valid when
the sediment load is not large. Most commonly used regime methods are
Kennedy’s method and Lacey’s method

.
(ii) Kennedy’s Method:
Kennedy collected data from 22 channels of the Upper Bari Doab canal
system in Punjab. His observations on this canal system led him to conclude
that the sediment supporting power of a channel is proportional to its width
(and not wetted perimeter).

On plotting the observed data, Kennedy obtained the relation, known as

Kennedy’s equation,

U0 = 0.55 h0.64 (5.1)

Kennedy termed U0 as the critical velocity (in m/s) (defined as the mean
velocity which will not allow scour or silting) in a channel having depth of
flow equal to h in metres. This critical velocity should be distinguished from
the critical velocity of flow in open channels corresponding to Froude
number equal to unity.
Equation 5.1 is obviously applicable to such channels which have the same
type of sediment as was presented in the Upper Bari Doab canal system. On
recognising the effect of the sediment size on the critical velocity, Kennedy
modified Eq. 5.1 to

U = 0.55 m h0.64 (5.2)

in which m is the critical velocity ratio and is equal to U/U0. Here, the
velocity U is the critical velocity for all sizes of sediment, whereas Uo is the
critical velocity for Upper Bari Doab sediment only. This means that the
value of m is unity for sediment of the size of Upper Bari Doab sediment.
For sediment coarser than Upper Bari Doab sediment, m is greater than 1,
while for sediment finer than Upper Bari Doab sediment, m is less than 1.
Project Report # 4. Full Supply Discharge of Irrigation Canal:
Part of canal water gets lost due to evaporation and seepage. These losses
are termed conveyance loss and may be of the order of about 10 to 40% of
the discharge at the head of the channel. Usually, these losses are calculated
at the rate of about 3 m3/s per million sq m of the exposed water surface
area.
The maximum discharge to be carried by an irrigation channel at its head to
satisfy the irrigation requirements for its command area under the worst
conditions during any part of a year is said to be the designed full supply
discharge (or capacity) of the channel. The water level in the channel when
it is carrying its full supply discharge is termed full supply level (FSL), and
the corresponding depth of flow is called full supply depth.
Project Report # 5. Longitudinal Section of Irrigation Canal:
The full supply level of a canal aligned on the watershed need to be only
about 10-30 cm higher than the adjacent ground level to ensure gravity flow
irrigation in its command area. Too high an FSL would result in

(i) Uneconomical canal cross-section of higher banks,

(ii) Increased seepage loss (and, therefore, increased chances of waterlog-

ging) due to higher head, and

(iii) Wasteful use of water by the farmers.

The FSL of an off-taking canal at its head should always be kept at least 15
cm lower than the water level of the parent (i.e., supply) channel so as to
account for

(i) The loss in the regulator;

(ii) The possibility of the off-taking canal bed getting silted up in its head
reaches, and

(iii) The possibility of increase in the withdrawal discharge sometime in

future.

If the designed slope of a canal is steeper than the available ground slope,
the canal is laid at a slope equal to the ground slope, and adequate measures
are taken at the head regulator to prevent or minimise the entry of coarse
sediment into the canal so that there would not occur any silting problem in
the canal due to its flatter slope.
On the other hand, if the designed slope of a canal is flatter than the available
ground slope, the canal is laid at the designed slope. Such a canal would
soon have its entire section above the ground surface and its FSL would also
be at too high level above the ground. Therefore, vertical fails (or drops) are
provided at intervals in the canal. For economic reasons, a fall can be
combined with a regulator or a bridge.

Such falls can also be used for generation of power. One may provide either
a larger number of smaller falls (i.e., falls with smaller drop in the channel
bed elevation) or smaller number of larger falls.

Payment of earthwork for canal construction is made on the basis of either

the excavation or the filling in embankments, whichever is more. Therefore,
it will be economical to keep excavation and filling reasonably balanced
which requires that the amount of the excavated soil is fully utilized in
fillings.

If the amount of earth required for filling exceeds the amount of the
excavated earth, this excess requirement of filling is met by digging earth
material from suitable places known as borrow pits. These borrow pits can
be made in the bed of the channel; Fig. 5.5.

(ii) Accidents in operations,

(iii) Wave action,

(iv) Land-slides, and

(v) Inflow during heavy rainfall.

Project Report # 6. Cross-Section of Irrigation Canal:
When the full supply level of an irrigation canal is lower than the
surrounding ground level (Fig. 5.6 (a)), the canal is said to be in cutting. If
the canal bed is at or higher than the surrounding ground level the canal is
in filling. When the surrounding ground level is in between the full supply
level and the bed level of the canal (Fig. 5.6 (c)), the canal is partly in cutting
and partly in filling and such a canal, usually, results in balanced earthwork.

These service roads are about 6 m wide and may or may not be metalled. If
these service roads are likely to meet the communication needs of the local
people, they will be much wider and also metalled. Between the canal road
and the canal, a ‘dowla’ of height 0.5 m and top width 0.5 m is also provided.

To prevent sloughing of inner surface and canal banks, a narrow horizontal

strip is provided on the inner sloping surface of the bank. This strip is known
as berm. For stability of banks, side slopes of an unlined channel should,
obviously, be flatter than the angle of repose of the saturated bank soil.

Cover over saturation line can be increased by providing a horizontal strip

similar to berm on the outer slope of bank in which case this strips is known
as counter berm (Fig. 5.6(b)). It also helps in collecting rain water and
disposing of the same without letting rainwater make a continuous gully on
the outer bank.

The calculations for the design of an irrigation canal are carried out in a
tabular form and the table of these computations is referred to as the
‘schedule of area statistics and channel dimensions’. The computations start