Canal

Irrigation
System
 Why Canal irrigation is needed
• Construction of canal networks is required for:
– For a direct irrigation scheme which makes use of a weir
or a barrage
– A storage irrigation scheme which makes use of a storage
dam or a storage reservoir

• The entire system of main canals, branch canals,

distributaries and minors is to be designed properly

– Peak discharge must pass through them

– To provide sufficient irrigation to the command areas

• These canals have to be aligned and excavated in

alluvial soils or non-alluvial soils
• Alluvial Canals:

• Non-alluvial Canals:
• Alluvial Canals:
– Soil which is formed by continuous silt deposition is called alluvial soil
– Flat slope, even topology and hard foundations not available
– Rivers have tendency to shift their course
– Indo-Gangetic Plain
– The canals when excavated through such soils are called alluvial
canals
– Canal irrigation is generally preferred in such areas as compared to
storage irrigation

• Non-alluvial Canals:
– Disintegration of mountains forms rocky plain area, called Non-
alluvial area
– Uneven topology, hard foundation are available
– No tendency of shifting rivers course
– Major portion of Maharashtra State
– Canals, passing through such areas are called Non-alluvial canals
 Alignment of canal
• Watershed Canal
 Contd…
• Contour Canal
 Contd…
• Side Slope Canal
 Alignment of canal
• Watershed Canal
– Canal which is aligned along any natural watershed
– Irrigation water can be taken out by gravity on either side of the
canal, directly or through small irrigation channels

• Contour Canal
– Canal which is aligned along the ridge / contour
– Can irrigate only on one side
– Cross drainage work required

• Side Slope Canal

– Canal which is aligned at right angles to the contours
– Cross drainage work not required
 Network of irrigation channels
“canal system”
• Direct irrigation scheme,
• Storage irrigation scheme,
• Combined system
 Contd….
• In case of direct irrigation scheme,
– a weir or a barrage is constructed across the river, and water is
headed up on the upstream side.
– This arrangement is known as Head Works or Diversion Head Works
– Water is diverted into the main canal by means of a diversion weir
– A head regulator is provided at the head of the main canal, to
regulate the flow of water into main canal

• In storage irrigation scheme,

– A dam is constructed across the river, thus forming a reservoir on the
u/s side of the river
– Water from this reservoir is taken into the main canal through the
outlet sluices
– Left Bank Canal or Right Bank Canal
 Distribution System for Canal Irrigation
• Main Canal

• Branched Canals

• Distributaries

• Minors

• Watercourses
• Main Canal (Head Reach)

– The canal head works are generally situated in a valley

– The canal should mount the watershed in the shortest possible
distance
– The canal, in this reach, must be aligned very carefully and has to be
generally excavated in deep cuttings below NSL (Natural Surface
Level)
– Sometimes, it has to cross various drainage lines
– Straight alignment has to be sacrificed in order to achieve a good
site for cross drainage works

• Main Canal (Portion below head reach)

– To align the canal along watershed and somewhat central to the

commanded area
– Watershed has to sacrificed to bypass towns and villages, etc.
– Main canal is not required to do any irrigation
• Branch Canals

– When a main canal leaves the high ground

– Bifurcate into branches
– Covering the whole tract required to be irrigated
– Very little irrigation is done from the branch canals
– Attempts are made to align them along subsidiary watershed
– Discharge generally, > 30 cumecs

• Distributaries

– Channels take off from the branch canals

– Distribute their supply through outlets into minors or water courses
– Aligned either as watershed channels or side slope channels
– Discharge generally, < 30 cumecs
• Minors

– Where the distance between the distributary's outlet and the farmer’s
field is very long (3 km or so)
– Water supply to the cultivators at the point nearer to their fields, is
taken off from the distributaries by small channels called minors
– Discharge generally, < 2.5 cumecs

• Watercourses

– These are not government channels

– Excavated by cultivators, to take water from the government-owned
outlet point provided in the distributary or the minor
 Important Definitions
• Gross Commanded Area (GCA)
– Total area bounded within the irrigation boundary of a project, which
can be economically irrigated without considering the limitation of the
quantity of available water

– It includes the cultivated as well as the non-cultivable area

• Culturable or Cultivable Commanded Area (CCA)

– Part of GCA on which cultivation is possible

– All of this culturable area may not be sown or cultivated at a time

– Pastures and fallow lands, which can be made cultivable are included

– Uncultivable populated areas including ponds, reserved forests, user

lands, roads, etc are all excluded
• Intensity of Irrigation (II)
– Due to some reasons, only a certain %age of the culturable land
brought under irrigation seasonally (30 % to 40 % of CCA) will be
irrigated every season

– The ratio of the actually irrigated area during a crop season to the
net culturable irrigable (culturable commanded) area

• Annual Irrigation Intensity

– The area irrigated during the entire year (i.e. gross irrigated area) to
the total CCA, expressed in %age

• Net and Gross Sown Areas

– Sometimes, two crops are grown during a particular year, on certain area

– Such an area will be sown more than once

– Area which is sown only once / net sown area

Total cropped area = Gross Sown Area

= Net Sown area + Area Sown more than once
• Net and Gross Irrigated Areas

– Based on the above analogy

Gross Irrigated Area = Net irrigated area + area irrigated more than once
during a year

• Area to be Irrigated

– The area proposed to be irrigated at any one time

– Obtained by multiplying CCA by intensity of irrigation (II)

– Worked out separately for each crop season

• Because the water requirement of the crops of two seasons are quite
different
• Time factor
– The ratio of the number of days the canal has actually to run, to the base
period in days
– Water requirement of the channel (i.e. its capacity) should be divided by time
factor
– So as to obtain the design capacity, since this factor is less than 1

• Capacity factor
– It is the ratio of the mean supply discharge to the full capacity discharge

• Full supply coefficient

Area estimate to be irrigated during base period

Design full sup ply disch arg e at its head during peak demand

• Nominal Duty
– Ratio of the area to be irrigated (for which the permit is granted to the
cultivators for the irrigation period) to the mean supply discharge during the
base period
 Channel Losses
• During the passage of water from the main canal to the outlet
at the head of the watercourse, water may be lost either by:

• Evaporation

– Generally very small compared to Seepage

– Generally of the order of 2 to 3 % of the total losses
– They depend upon all those factors on which the evaporation depends

• Temperature
• Wind velocity
• Humidity

– In summer season, these losses may be more but seldom exceed 7%

or so
• Seepage
There may be two different conditions of seepage

– Percolation
• there exists a zone of continuous saturation from the canal to the water-
table and a direct flow is established
• Almost all water lost from the canal, joins the ground water reservoir
• The loss of water depends upon the difference of top water level of the
channel and the level of the water-table

– Absorption
• A small saturated soil zone exists round the canal section, and is
surrounded by zone of decreasing saturation
• A certain zone just above the water-table is saturated by capillarity
• Thus, there exists an unsaturated soil zone between the two saturated
zones
• In this case, the rate of loss is independent of seepage head (H) but
depends only upon the water head h (i.e. distance between water surface
level of canal and the bottom of the saturated zone) + the capillary head
hc
 Factors affecting seepage losses

• Type of seepage, i.e. whether ‘percolation’ or ‘absorption’

• Soil permeability

• The condition of the canal; the seepage through a silted canal is less than
that from a new canal

• Amount of silt carried by the canal; the more the silt, lesser are the losses

• Velocity of canal water; the more the velocity, lesser will be the losses

• Cross – section of the canal and its wetted perimeter

Type of soil through which channel is Total loss in cumecs/million sq. m
excavated of wetted area
Rocks 0.9
Black cotton soil 1.6
Alluvial red soil 2.5
Decayed rock, gravel, etc. 3.0
Loose sandy soil 5.5
• Empirical formulas for channel losses

• 1 2
Q  B  D  3
200
– Where ΔQ = channel losses in cumecs/km length of channel
B = bed width of the channel in meters
D = depth of water in the channel in meters
This formula is generally used in U.P.

• 1
6
Q  1.9 Q
where ΔQ = losses in cumecs per million sq. m of wetted perimeter
Q = discharge in cumecs

This above formula is commonly used in Punjab

 Theory of
Seepage and
Design of Weir
and Barrages
• Failure of hydraulic structures founded? on
pervious foundation
– Hydraulic structures such as dams, weirs, barrages, head regulators,
cross-drainage works, etc.
– May either be founded on an impervious solid rock foundation or on a
pervious foundation
– Such structures if founded on a pervious foundation
– Are subjected to seepage of water beneath the structure, in addition to
all other forces to which it will be subjected when founded on an
impervious rock foundation
– In India, most of these hydraulic structures are required to be founded
on alluvial soil foundations
– Which do allow seepage beneath them, may cause its failure either by

– PIPING or DIRECT UPLIFT

• Failure by Piping or Undermining
– When the seepage water retains sufficient residual force at the
emerging downstream end of the work, it may lift up the soil particles
– This leads to increased porosity of the soil by progressive removal of
soil from beneath the foundation
– The structure may ultimately subside into the hollow so formed,
resulting in the failure of the structure

• Failure by Direct Uplift

– The water seeping below the structure, exerts an uplift pressure on
the floor of the structure
– If this pressure is not counterbalanced by the weight of the concrete
or masonry floor, the structure will fail by a rupture of a part of the
floor

• The above concepts of the failure of hydraulic structures due

to sub-surface flow were introduced by Bligh
 Bligh’s Creep Theory for Seepage Flow
• According to Bligh’s Theory
– The percolating water follows the outline of the base of the
foundation of the hydraulic structure
– Or, water creeps along the bottom contour of the structure
– The length of the path thus traversed by water is called the length of
the creep

• It is assumed in this theory

– The loss of head is proportional to the length of the creep
– If HL is the total head loss between the upstream and the
downstream, and L is the length of creep, then the loss of head per
unit of creep length (i.e. HL/L) is called the hydraulic gradient
– Further Bligh makes no distinction between horizontal and vertical
creep
• Consider a section

• Let HL be the difference of water levels between u/s and d/s

ends
• No water on d/s side
• Water will seep along the bottom contour as shown by
arrows
• It start percolating at A and emerges at B
• The total length of creep is given by
L = d1 + d1 + L1 + d2 + d2 + L2 + d3 + d3
= 2d1 + (L1 + L2) + 2 d2 + 2d3
= (L1 + L2) + 2[d1 + d2 + d3]
= b + 2 [d1 + d2 + d3]

• Head loss per unit length or hydraulic gradient

 HL  HL
 
 b  2  d 1  d 2  d 3   L

 HL  H L  H L 
• Head loss equal to   2d 1   2d 2   2d 3 
 L  L  L 

• Will occur respectively, in the planes of three vertical cut offs

• Then the hydraulic gradient line (HG) can be drawn
• Safety against piping or undermining
– According to Bligh, the safety against piping can be ensured by
providing sufficient creep length

– Given by L = C x HL
• Where C is Bligh’s coefficient for the soil

Values of Bligh’s Safe Hydraulic Gradient for Different Types of Soils

Type of soil Value of C Safe Hydraulic
gradient should be
less than
Fine micaceous sand (as in North Indian 15 1/15
Rivers)
Coarse grained sand (as in Central and South 12 1/12
Indian Rivers)
Sand mixed with boulder and gravel, and for 5 to 9 1/5 to 1/9
loam soil
Light sand and mud 8 1/8
• Safety against uplift pressure
– The ordinates of the HG line above the bottom of the floor represent
the residual uplift water head at each point

– For example:
• If at any point, the ordinate of HG line above the bottom of the floor
is 1 m
• Then 1 m head of water will act as uplift at that point
• If h’ m is this ordinate, then water pressure equal to h’ m will act at
this point
• And has to be counterbalance by the weight of the floor of
thickness say t.

– Therefore, uplift pressure = γw h’

» Where, γw is the unit wt. of water

– Downward pressure = (γw . G) . t

» Where G is the specific gravity of the floor material
– For equilibrium
γw . h’ = γw . G . t

h’ = G t

– Subtracting t on both sides, we get

(h’-t) = (G.t – t) = t (G-1)

Or,
 h'  t   h 
t      
 G  1   G  1 

– Where, (h’-t) = h is the ordinate of the HG line above the top of the floor

(G-1) is the submerged specific gravity of the floor material

For concrete, G may be taken equal to 2.4
• The thickness of the floor can be easily determine by using
the above equation

• This is generally increased by 33%, so as to allow a suitable

factor of safety
 Design of a Vertical Weir on Bligh’s
Theory
• Many of the vertical drop weirs have been designed on Bligh’s theory
• Even though this theory has now been replaced by modern Khosla’s
theory
• It is still used at certain places
• Especially for minor works, owing to its simplicity
• Design of Pucca-Floor and Aprons
– The total length of the pucca floor of the weir (including twice the
length of cut-ff, if provided) is designed in accordance with the
equation

L = CHL

– The thickness of the floor is designed by using the equation

 h 
t  1.33 
 G 1

– Bligh has further given certain empirical formulas for determining the
length of the d/s pucca flooe (L2)

– The cut-offs may be provided as per the provision of Khosla’s theory

The balance floor length, i.e.

[(the total length) – (the d/s length + twice the cut-off length)]
is then provided under the crest and on the u/s side as shown in the
above figure
• The lengths of the u/s and d/s loose stone aprons which are provided in order to
prevent the scour from reaching the pucca floor are also worked out by the
empirical formulas put forward by Bligh

HL
• For weirs having crest shutters, L2  2.21  C 
13

HL
• For weirs having no crest shutters, L2  2.21  C 
10
• Where HL = total head loss, L2 = the length of d/s pucca floor

HL q
• For weirs having crest shutters, L2  L3  18  C  
13 75

HL q
• For weirs having no crest shutters, L2  L3  18  C  
10 75

• Where q = the discharge intensity in cumecs/metre

L3 = the length of d/s loose stone apron
• The length of u/s apron (L4) may be kept equal to half the length of d/s apron
• Thus, L4 = L3/2

• The above formulas are applicable for designing the proper weir portion; whereas
for designing the ‘undersluice’ portion of the weir, the following modified formulas
are used

HL
• For ‘undersluices” having crest shutters L2  3.87  C 
13

HL
• For ‘undersluices” having no crest shutters L2  3.87  C 
10

HL q
• For ‘undersluices” having crest shutters L2  L3  27  C  
13 75

HL q
• For ‘undersluices” having no crest shutters L2  L3  27  C  
10 75
• Design of Weir Wall
– According to Bligh, the top width of weir wall (B’) is given as:

' H
B 
G 1
– Where B’ = Top width of weir wall and is generally 1.5 to 1.8 m
H = Head of water over the weir wall at the time of max. flood
G = Specific gravity of floor material

– Further, the crest width should also be greater by 0.6 m than the
height of the crest shutters, if any

– The bottom width (B) of the weir wall may be obtained by providing
suitable side slopes

– The u/s batter may be kept as 4H : 10V and the d/s batter should not
be flatter than 1: 1
• The bottom width (B) of the weir wall should not be less than

H  Height of weir
B
G 1
• The crest level of the weir wall and the height of solid masonry weir is
determined from the considerations of afflux

• The afflux produced should not exceed the allowable value

• Generally kept less than 1.5 m or so

• If the crest level, works out to be practically equal to the pond level, then a
solid masonry weir can be provided

• If it is much less than the pond level, then the balance may be provided
by crest shutters
 Self Study
• Design a weir in a permeable foundation
to store water to an height of 3 m
• Study the Khosla’s theory
• Compare the Bligh and Khosla theory in
design of a weir in a permeable foundation
• Have a look of canal system near by your
locality