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RIVER ENGINEERING

By Sagar Dodeja, Ex.IES

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RIVER ENGINEERING
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RIVER RIVERBANK
TRAINING PROTECTION
WORKS WORKS
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RIVER TRAINING
• River training implies certain measures to be
adopted on a river to stabilise the river channel
along a certain alignment with a certain cross
section.
• Required because they -
1. Prevent outflanking of the hydraulic structures
2. Protect the river bank
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3. Provide a safe passage to pass flood
4. Contract a river channel to improve its depth
for navigation
5. Control river bed configuration
6. Prevent river from changing its course

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TYPES OF ALLUVIAL RIVERS
• Aggrading Rivers - Bed slope rises slowly due
to deposition of silt
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• When river has excess sediments and
sudden decrease in slope in some regions
• Sediments from a tributary
• Construction of dams/barrages

• Degrading Rivers - Bed level slowly

decreases due to scouring of bed
• Usually the river portion d/s of a dam or
barrage

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BEDFORMS IN A RIVER
• As we discussed in Design of Canals, there is
bed load, suspended load which comprises
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total sediment load.
• The bed load movement/transportation
gives shape to the bed gradually (Garge &
Ranga Raju, 2000) which are called as
bedforms. The bedforms are divided into
following categories depending upon the
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Froude Number of the flow.

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1. Plane Bed with no motion of sediment
• When 𝛕act ≤ 𝛕cr
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• Froude Number is less than 1
• Smooth Surface

2. Ripples & Dunes

• When 𝛕act > 𝛕cr
• Froude number increases but still less than 1 -
ripples at lower Fr & dunes at higher Fr
• Dunes are bigger than ripples but look the
same

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RIPPLES ARE FORMED AT LOW VELOCITIES

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DUNES ARE FORMED AT HIGH VELOCITIES

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3. Transition
• Ripples & dunes are washed away
• Fr slightly less than 1
• Relatively flat surface
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4. Antidunes
• When Fr > 1 indicating super critical flow
• Dunes of reverse nature
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• Generally not observed in nature
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CLASSIFICATION OF R.T. WORKS
High Water Training – It is undertaken with the
purpose of providing the efficient disposal of
the maximum floods & thereby protecting
against damage due to floods.
• It is also called as training for discharge.

Low Water Training - It is undertaken with the

purpose of providing sufficient depth for
navigation during the low water season.
• It is usually concerned with contraction of
width SAGAR SIR, MADE EASY
• It is also known as training for depth.

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Mean Water Training – It is undertaken to
provide efficient disposal of bed & suspended
sediments and thereby protecting the river
channel in designed shape.
• It is also known as training for sediments.

Note -
• Morphology of a River - River/Stream Morphology
describes the shape of river channels and how they
change in shape & direction with respect to time.
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• THALWEG of a river - a thalweg or talweg is the
line of lowest elevation within a valley or
watercourse.

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RIVER
TRAINING
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GROYNES/SPURS
• Groynes are structures constructed transverse to
the river flow and extend from the bank into
river up-to a limit.
• This form of R.T. works perform one or more
functions such as:
• training the river along the desired course to
reduce the concentration of flow at the point
of attack,
• creating a low flow for silting up the area in
the vicinity, and SAGAR SIR, MADE EASY
• protecting the bank by keeping the flow away
from it.

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TYPES OF GROYNES/SPURS
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Groynes are classified on the basis of
function
1. Repelling/Reflecting Groynes,
2. Deflecting Groynes,
3. Attracting Groynes,
4. T-Shaped (Denehey), Hockey (Or Burma)
Type, Kinked Type, Etc.

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1. REPELLING/REFLECTING GROYNE
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• It points towards the U/S at an angle of
10-30 degrees to the line normal to the
bank,
• The head of this spur causes the flow to
be deflected in a direction nearly
perpendicular to itself
• A still water pocket is formed U/S of it
and suspended load gets deposited in the
pocket

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2. DEFLECTING GROYNE
• It has much shorter length than repelling
groyne and it is built perpendicular to the
bank
• It only deflects the flow, locally

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3. ATTRACTING GROYNE
• The Attracting Groyne points D/S of the
direction of normal flow.SAGAR SIR, MADE EASY
• It causes formation of scour holes closer
to the banks than the repelling groynes.
• Therefore, they tend to maintain deep
current close to the bank.

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Meandering of Rivers
• A meandering type of river flows in
consecutive curves of reverse order connected
with short strait called as crossing/crossover.
The meandering action increases the length of
the stream or river and tends to reduce the
slope.

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Causes of Meandering as per
Ingus’ Theory
• When there is heavy load of bed material in
movement during floods, excess turbulent
energy is developed due to unevenness of the
bed and the banks SAGAR SIR, MADE EASY
• In such a condition, it is observed that
symmetrical axial flow is not maintained & the
flow tends to concentrate towards one of the
banks
• Due to this concentration of flow, further
erosion takes place & finally giving the
meandering shape to the river

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For Rivers in Flood Plains - For Incised Rivers -
• MB = 153.42 √Q • MB = 153.42 √Q
• ML = 53.61 √Q • ML = 53.61 √Q
• W = 8.84 √Q • W = 8.84 √Q
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where Q is in m3/s ;
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MB, ML, W in metre

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• Rivers in Flood Plains - submerge a large
area on either side during floods
• Incised Rivers - flow sufficiently below
natural ground surface
• Meander Ratio - MB/ML
• Sinuosity - ratio of Thalweg length to the
valley length SAGAR SIR, MADE EASY
• Tortuosity - ratio of actual length (along
the curve) to the straight line Meander
Length between the end points of a curve

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DIVERSION HEADWORKS

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LEVEES OR MARGINAL BUNDS OR
EMBANKMENTS
• Embankments & dykes also known as
levees are earthen banks constructed
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parallel to the course of river to confine it
to a fixed course and limited cross-
sectional width.
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• The heights of levees will be higher than
the design flood level with sufficient free
board. The confinement of the river to a
fixed path frees large tracts of land from
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inundation and consequent damage.

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GUIDE BANKS OR BELL’S BUND
• Guide Banks are made for guiding the river
near a structure so as to confine it in a
reasonable width of river.
• The Guide Banks usually consists of a
heavily built embankment in the shape of
Bell Mouth on both sides of constricted
channel. SAGAR SIR, MADE EASY
• It is necessary at many instances to narrow
down and restrict the course of the river
through the barrage and it is achieved by
the use of the guide bunds.

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DIVIDE WALL
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• The wall which divides the waterway into
two parts, one is the weir portion and the
other from which canal takes off is called
the divide wall.

FISH PASS OR FISH LADDER

• Some barrages require providing special
structures to allow migratory fishes to flow
up and down the river through structures
called Fish Passes or Fish Ladders

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SILT EXCLUDER & SILT EXTRACTORS
• Silt Excluders are those works which are
constructed on the bed of the river upstream
of the head regulator. The silted water enters
the silt excluders and clear water enters the
head regulators.
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• In this type of works, the silt is therefore,
removed from the water before it enters the
canal.
• Silt Extractors or Silt Ejectors remove the
remaining silt in the off-take canal and are
constructed some distance downstream of the
head regulator at the bed of the canal.

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Cutoffs
• Cut-offs are barriers provided below the floor
of the barrage both at the upstream and the
downstream ends. They may be in the form of
concrete or steel sheet-piles. The cut-offs
extend from one end of the barrage or dam up
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to the other end (on the other bank). The
purpose of providing cutoff is two-folds as
explained further –

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1. During low-flow periods in rivers, when most of the
gates are closed in order to maintain a pond level, the
differential pressure head between upstream and
downstream may cause uplift of river bed particles. A
cutoff increases the flow path and reduces the uplift
pressure, ensuring stability to the structure

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2. During flood flows or some unnatural flow condition,
when there is substantial scour of the downstream
riverbed, the cutoffs or sheet piles protect the
undermining of the structures foundation
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LACEY’S SCOUR DEPTH
• Lacey’s scour depth equation helps to find
the depth of sheet piles by finding the
level of deepest scour below HFL.
• The sheet pile must be taken atleast upto
the level of possible deepest scour below
the bed of the river.
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• The design depth of scour below HFL may
be taken as 1.5 times Lacey’s Scour
Depth.

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SCOUR DEPTH FORMULA

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Launching Apron as River
Protection Work
• Whenever a sloping face is protected by
stone pitching against scour, the pitching is
extended beyond the toe on the bed in the
form of packed stones, this stone dumping is
known as launching apron
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• If no such protection is provided, scour will
occur at the toe with consequent
undermining.

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• The launching apron is generally laid in a
width equal to 1.5 times the depth of the
scour D below the original bed.
• The total scour below HFL is taken as XRs
where Rs is Lacey’s normal regime scour
depth. The value of X depends upon the type
of river training work and it’s location
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• In order to remove such a danger to the slope,
the pitching is extended on the horizontal
river bed portion, which falls down into the
scoured portion as soon as the scouring
occurs.

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*** THE END ***

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