Experimental study on performance of spurs

Abstract

During the flood of 2001 in the Kosi River, a large portion of the river bank along the Western Kosi Main Canal (WKMC) between chainage 0.00 km and 4.237 km was damaged. The spur at chainage 2.25 km along the western flood embankment located near WKMC was also damaged during the flood of 2002. The Kosi Barrage Gate Regulation Committee in May 2003 inspected these sites and requested the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune, to conduct model studies of Kosi River for effective river training works. This article describes the distorted hydraulic model studies conducted on the existing mobile bed model of Kosi River at CWPRS Pune with horizontal scale 1/500 and vertical scale 1/70. The results indicated that two spurs, one located at chainage 3.5 km and another at chainage 3.75 km, along the WKMC would help to deflect the flow away from the bank and reduce the flow concentration on the existing spur at chainage 2.25 km of Western Flood Embankment.

Keywords:

• spur
• Kosi River
• Western Kosi Main Canal
• flood embankment
• velocity
• flow pattern

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Shri A.R. Chavan, Joint Director, Shri S.D. Kulkarni, Senior Research Officer (retd.) and Shri P.V. Awate, Senior Research Officer, for their valuable suggestions and guidance during the course of the studies.