Experimental Investigating the Effect of Relative Curvature of a Channel Bend on the Inlet Flows in Bilateral Water Intakes of Weirs with Horizontal and Sloping Crests

There are evidences of the construction of weirs and diversion dams in river bends, and the necessities for building water intakes on both sides of the river bend. The construction of weirs in rivers reaches encounters problems in terms of asymmetry of flow distribution into the intake structures on both sides of the river. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of relative curvature on the ratio of the inlet discharge of bilateral water intakes from a weir in a channel bend. The experiments were carried out in three laboratory channels with different relative curvatures (i.e. 3.3, 2.55 and 0.84), which falls into the category of mild, moderate and sharp bends. A broad-crested weir with two types of horizontal and sloping crests was installed at an angle of 60 degrees from the bend inlet. Two intakes were located next to the inner and outer banks. The results indicated that the weir installation in the mild bend performed better uniformity of intake discharges on both channel sides. The performance of sloping crest weir was superior compare with the horizontal crest weir. With the sloping crest weir, average inlet discharge into the inner and outer intakes increased by 8%, 4% and 8%, in three bends of  relative curvatures 3.3, 2.55 and 0.84, respectively, compared to the horizontal crest weir. Considering the sloping crest weir, the discharge ratio of the outer to inner intakes in the three mild, moderate and sharp bends was 1.00, 1.10 and 1.12, respectively. Increasing the channel discharges would result in more uniformity of inflows in the inner and outer banks in the three bends with different relative curvatures.