Analysis of the Discharge and Opening of the Radial Gates under Free and Submerged Flow Condition

Most of the previous studies related to radial gates are focused on the estimation of discharge from the gates as a flow measurement structure. However, determination of the gate opening for passing a certain value of the discharge is rarely considered in previous studies as a regulator structure. The present work presents some theoretical equations for explicit estimation of the outflow from the gate (first problem), and gate opening (second problem) for free and submerged flow conditions by combination of Energy and Momentum principles. For any problems, it was developed some criteria to identify flow conditions These equations were calibrated and validated by means of 2657 experimental records retrieved from research conducted on three types of radial gates. The paper would present an analytical approach to illustrate the reliability of proposed equations for estimation of discharge and the opening of the gate by taking benefits from the mean absolute relative errors which observed to be 1.94% and 2.67, respectively. It was noted that the used criteria conform with 99.6% and 98.8% of all observations at first and second problems, respectively. The results show that the tailwater depth under distinguishing limiting decreases by increasing in the gate lip angle and the ratio of turnnion pin height to the gate arm radius. Also, the hard rubber bar gate tends to operate under free flow condition in a wider range in comparison with two other gates.