Design of Coanda intakes for optimum sediment release efficiencies

Abstract

When the water has to be diverted from a turbid source having a great amount of suspended materials in it, bottom intake structures such as Coanda and Tyrolean types are preferred. To perform this task, diverted water is captured by a transversal rack, and a gallery located in the control crest is utilized. This study was motivated by a search for the best design where the quality of the diverted water can be increased by screening out most of the sediments in the flow. Current work focuses on the water capture and sediment release efficiencies of both Tyrolean and Coanda type intakes through experimental work. It complements and extends existing experimental studies by considering sediment-laden flow. We used a novel sediment feeding system designed specifically for this study in the experiments. Study results pointed out that when sediment release efficiency is considered, all types of Coanda intakes having different design parameters performed better as compared to Tyrolean intakes. Water capture and sediment release efficiencies are related to parameters used in the experiments including Coanda type, rack angle, void ratio, sediment amount, and flow rate based on the statistical analyses of these parameters. An optimum design is proposed with the maximum sediment release efficiency to prevent clogging during the operation of the intakes. © 2020, Korean Society of Civil Engineers.