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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #86799
Title: CANAL CONTROL ALGORITHM FORMULATIONS

Author
item RUIZ, VICTOR - IMTA, MEXICO
item Clemmens, Albert
item SCHUURMANS, JAN - LOUGHBOROUGH UNIV, UK

Submitted to: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Water is becoming a scarce resource, and agricultural water users are under pressure to use water more judiciously. For many large irrigation projects, the physical infrastructure that delivers water to users influences their ability to manage the water supplied to them. Most large water delivery systems convey and distribute water with canals rather rthan pipelines. For large-scale systems, canals are an order of magnitude less expensive than pipelines. Infrastructure improvements (e.g., conversion to pressurized pipelines) are typically very expensive relative to changes in operations. Operations can be improved by providing canal operators with better tools for determining control actions. One such tool is the use of automatic controls. Full canal automation implies control of canal gates from computers or microprocessors. A number of new theories have recently been proposed for such computerized control, but none have been implemented. This paper summarizes that work by showing the similarities and differences among the various control algorithms. This is done by putting these algorithms into similar numerical form. The results should be useful for developers of canal control methods and ultimately ro irrigation districts, consulting engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.

Technical Abstract: Over the past two decades, numerous automatic control systems have been proposed for irrigation canal operation. These systems can be classified from empirically-based for a one-canal pool to multivariable multi-pool procedures based on the minimization of quadratic performance criteria. Most of these control algorithms can be expressed in standard control theory terminology, from which properties and characteristics can be determined. The determination of the control action or control variable required to obtain some desired canal operation, as a function of the design technique used, is presented. The control laws, in an RST polynomial form, associated with the different design techniques are also shown. These expressions clarify the differences between the algorithms and their limitations when they are used in the operation of irrigation canals. A discussion is presented on the selection of these different algorithms for situations of interest in canal automation.