Sluice, Regulator

Sluice, Regulator 

a hydraulic engineering installation on irrigation, flooding, and water supply canals, designed to change the water discharge regime by means of gates.

Regulator sluices are classified according to their location: head sluices, for regulating the feed of water to the canal from the source or from a larger, trunk canal; retaining sluices, for maintaining the water level in a canal when discharge rates are low; flushing sluices, for washing away sediment that has been deposited in front of a structure in the canal; distributors, distributing the water at points where the canal branches; and overflow (spillway) sluices, for directing unused water into a drainage network.

Open regulator sluices are installed where fluctuations in water level are small; where fluctuations are greater, the sluices may be equipped with a diaphragm (retaining wall) and bottom gate underneath, or tunnel sluices may be set in the body of a dam and equipped with the same kind of gate. Regulator sluices are made primarily of reinforced concrete, often precast.