Department of Civil Engineering

University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

CE-402: Irrigation Engineering and

Water Management

Lecture 7
Maintenance of Irrigation Canals,
Design of Lined Canals

8th Semester (4th Year)

Civil Engineering
Spring 2022

Lecturer: Alamgir Khalil

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals

➢ After the construction of irrigation system in an area is completed, it

becomes essential to maintain it for its proper and efficient functioning.
There are various reasons due to which a canal may cease to function
efficiently. These are;

✓ Silting of canal

✓ Breaching of canal due to

weak banks

✓ Weed growth

✓ Overflow of canal banks

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Silt Removal
➢ When the silt is deposited on the bed and sides the capacity of the canal reduces.
It is better to exclude silt by providing silt excluder and ejector. The following
measures are adopted to remove the silt;

✓ Flushing
✓ Silt scouring fleet
✓ Bundle of thorny bushes
✓ Iron rakes
✓ Reduction of area of flow
✓ Stirring of silt by water jet
✓ Dredging
✓ Excavation

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Silt Removal

✓ Flushing – Flushing of the canal with clear water will lift up deposited silt.
Absolutely clear water should be used for flushing but if this is not available then
the water which contains minimum quantity of silt should be used for flushing.

✓ Stirring of silt by water jet – A pump fitted with a pipe and nozzle is placed on a
barge. The high velocity jet is directed to the bed to stir the silt and prevent
silting.

✓ Excavation – The silt deposited in a channel is cleared off by manual labor. The
method is quite costly as it requires recurring expenditure. This method is
generally adopted for silt clearance in distributaries and minors. The silt must be
deposited clear off the channel so that it does not find its way back to the
channel.
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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Weed Control

➢ Water weeds are unwanted plants that grow profusely

in water under certain favorable conditions. They tend
to reduce the discharging capacity of channel by
reducing of the channel section and velocity of flow.

➢ The silted canals provide excellent base for weed

growth.

➢ Weed removal may be

done by plucking them
by hand and burning
them when canal is dry.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Strengthening of Canal Banks

➢ To prevent breaching of the canal bank, it should be strengthened properly so

that valuable loss of irrigation and property is prevented due to breaching a canal
section. There are different methods of strengthening a canal bank;

✓ External silting system

✓ Internal silting system

✓ Formation of back berm

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Strengthening of Canal Banks

✓ Internal silting system – Sometimes, When a canal-reach runs in filling, the

banks are subjected to water pressure. To avoid damage, the banks must be given
extra strength by increasing their sections. Favorable conditions are created to
cause silting internally. Sufficient wider section is provided, and a part of it later
gets silted, forming the additional bank. Such a method is possible only for new
channels. To accelerate silting, low submergible spurs projecting from the banks
into the channel may be constructed.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Canal Breaches

➢ Canal breach is an opening, or a gap developed in the canal bank due to

erosion of some portion of the bank. When once water starts flowing out of
such breach, it starts becoming deeper and wider, unless remedial measures
are taken to plug the breach.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Canal Breaches

➢ Reasons for canal breaching

1) Breaching due to defective design and construction of the bank. The canal bank is
not strong enough to resist water pressure and a breach occurs.
2) Breaching due to exposure of saturation gradient. The soil particles on the outer
slope are dislodged and flown away along with the seeping water. A cavity is thus
formed in the bank which ultimately develops into a breach.
3) Breaching due to rush of water through rat holes or “Shories”.
4) Piping near downstream toe may ultimately cause subsidence of canal banks.
5) A willful cut in the canal bank either for unauthorized irrigation or for allowing
the flood water to get into canal to save an area from submergence.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Canal Breaches

Closure of Banks
➢ Immediately after a breach occurs, the canal discharge
should be diverted to a nearby escape channel on the
upstream side or the canal should be closed from the
head to stop the outflow completely. Many a times it
is not possible to close the canal from head as the
irrigation of the area in between may suffer.

➢ In case of small minors and distributaries, a breach may be closed by dumping huge
quantities of earth instantaneously from both sides of the gap.

➢ In case of bigger canals such as a branch canal, the above procedure can not be
adopted, as the discharge from such a canal is huge and may completely wash off the
dumped soil.
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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Canal Breaches

Closure of Banks
➢ In such a case, it is necessary to, first of all, reduce the flow through the breach.
This should be done by driving a double line of stakes or wooden piles (ballies) in
the opening of the breach.
➢ The space between the pile lines is filled with planks or bushes etc. The filler
material can be secured by placing sandbags on the top. If the breach is very
wide, another line of defense may be provided. This will reduce the inflow from
the breach.
➢ Collect a sufficient amount of earth on both sides of the gap. The earth collected
should either be from spoil bank nearby or from borrow pits. This earth material
is then dumped up instantaneously from both sides of the gap to form a ring
bund on outer side.
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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Maintenance of Irrigation Canals (cont.)

Canal Breaches

Closure of Banks

➢ The opening is then properly

filled with suitable earth in
layers, each being properly
compacted.

➢ The bank so formed is

inspected carefully for few
days to watch its proper
functioning.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal

Canal Cross Sections

➢ Generally, Two types of lined canal sections are adopted,
1) Triangular shaped or curved channel
2) Trapezoidal shaped or flat bottom shaped channel

➢ The side slopes are so selected that they are nearly equal to the angle of repose
of the soil so that no earth pressure is imposed on the lining. The corners are
rounded off to improve the hydraulic efficiency.

➢ Triangular section is adopted for small discharges, as it is the best discharging

section. For higher discharges, trapezoidal section may be adopted.

➢ If the limiting velocity is taken as 1.8 m/s then the circular section can be adopted
only if the discharge is less than 85 cumecs.
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University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal (cont.)

1) Triangular shaped or curved channel

➢ The bed is circular with its center at the full

supply level and radius equal to full supply
depth ‘D’. The sides are tangential to the
curve.

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University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal (cont.)

2) Trapezoidal shaped or flat bottom
shaped channel

➢ The horizontal bed is joined to the side

slope by a curve of radius equal to full
supply depth ‘D’.

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University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal (cont.)

Canal Cross Sections

➢ In order to design a lined canal section following data is required: (i) discharge Q,
(ii) rugosity coefficient N, (iii) Longitudinal slope S, (iv) side slopes, and (v) limiting
velocity V.

➢ The procedure for design of trapezoidal shaped channel is given below:

➢ Step # 1: Knowing the limiting velocity V, rugosity coefficient N, and longitudinal

slope S, calculate the hydraulic mean depth R using Manning’s equation.

1 2 1 1.486 2 1
𝑉 = 𝑅3 𝑆 2 𝑉= 𝑅3𝑆 2
𝑁 MKS system 𝑁 FPS system

➢ Step # 2: Find the area of cross section, 𝑄

𝐴=
𝑉
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University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal (cont.)

Canal Cross Sections

𝐴
➢ Step # 3: Find out the wetted perimeter of the section 𝑃=
𝑅

➢ Step # 4: For trapezoidal shaped channel, area of cross section A and wetted
perimeter P

𝐴 = 𝐵𝐷 + 𝐷2 (𝜃 + 𝑐𝑜𝑡𝜃) 𝑃 = 𝐵 + 2𝐷 (𝜃 + 𝑐𝑜𝑡𝜃)

Since A and P are known from Step # 3 and 4, the values of bed width B
and depth D can be computed.

For triangular shaped channel,

𝐴 = 𝐷2 (𝜃 + 𝑐𝑜𝑡𝜃) 𝑃 = 2𝐷 (𝜃 + 𝑐𝑜𝑡𝜃)
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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal (cont.)

Values of Manning’s N for lined channels
Type of Lining Values of N
Cast in-situ concrete trowel finish 0.015 – 0.018
Cement plastered masonry 0.012 – 0.015
P.C.C slabs or tiles 0.018 – 0.020
Brick lining 0.018 – 0.020
Split Boulder lining 0.020 – 0.025
Round Boulder lining 0.025 – 0.035

Type of Lining Permissible Velocity

Cement concrete lining (unreinforced) 2.0 to 2.5 m/s
Burnt clay tile lining 1.8 m/s
Boulder lining 1.5 m/s
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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal – Example

Design a trapezoidal shaped concrete lined channel to carry a discharge of 350

cumecs at a slope of 1 in 5000. The side slopes of the channel are 1½ :1. The
value of N may be taken as 0.014. Assume the limiting velocity as 2 m/s.

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 Department of Civil Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Design of Lined Canal (cont.)

➢ The properties of best hydraulic cross section for selected channels are given
below:

Area Wetted Hydraulic radius Top width

Cross Section
A perimeter P R T

Trapezoidal, half of a 4Τ
3 D2 2 3D D/2 3 3D
hexagon

Rectangle, half of a
2D2 4D D/2 2D
square

Triangular, half of a 1Τ
D2 2 2D 4 2D 2D
square

Here, D = depth of water 20