Effectiveness of Submerged Vanes in Sediment Control to the Intake Channels: A Review and Future Directions

AbstractSediment diversion to water and irrigation networks has always been one of the major problems in engineering projects. This article reviews the previous research on applying submerged vanes to specify the amount of sediments diverted to the intake channel. The theoretical background for the efficiency of submerged vanes is described along with the equations governing the flow in the case of submerged plates in the flow field. The article then examines the parameters influential on the efficiency of the vanes. An investigation of the submerged vanes established in laboratory conditions, river conditions, and numerical modeling is also included in this article. The investigations showed that most of the studies conducted for the reduction of sediment entering the water intake were implemented in the laboratory (approximately 71%), and a limited number of the studies have been conducted in the field (11%), done numerically (18%). The results revealed that the highest percentage of sediment reduction in the water intake was 94% in the laboratory studies. However, all field studies reported the high efficiency of the presence of submerged vanes with the reduction of sedimentation. Optimizing the parameters of submerged vanes in numerical studies led to the presentation of different numbers for dimensionless values of the height and length of vanes. For example, the dimensionless ratio of the vane height to flow depth was reported to be in the range of 0.2 to 0.65. Finally, the limitations of the current knowledge and suggestions regarding the application of the submerged vanes for future research on sediment diversion are presented.