A computer model for designing of permanent gully control structures

Abstract

Engineering measures of soil and water conservation are an integral part of watershed management or development, and thus they must be designed accurately and economically. Designing of various gully control structures plays a vital role in the success of any watershed development programme. Analytical designing of these structures in terms of hydrologic, hydraulic and structural stability is very important. The study aims at developing comprehensive module for software namely SCS_Designer model for designing of different permanent gully control structures (drop spillway, drop inlet spillway and chute spillway) and other structures along with testing and validation of the developed module of the model. SCS_Designer model also has the provision to check the step-wise procedure followed by the model for the designing of various structures. These help the users especially students to analyze the differences in design parameters by changing the input data. Also these saved step-wise procedure files make SCS_Designer an effective teaching tool. SCS_Designer was tested with the help of standard examples for different permanent gully control structures. The design results obtained using the SCS_Designer were compared with the corresponding design results from different sources and error analysis was performed. In most cases, the design results obtained using the model matched exactly with the respective design results given in the source. Small deviation in design parameters was due to truncation and round off errors. Thus, it was concluded that SCS_Designer is validated and can be used as a standard designing tool for different permanent gully control structures viz drop spillway, drop inlet spillway and chute spillway. Furthermore, it can be used as an effective teaching tool. Key words: Gully control, structures, validation, computer model.