International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Special Issue 3, February 2014)
International Conference on Trends in Mechanical, Aeronautical, Computer, Civil, Electrical and Electronics Engineering
(ICMACE14)

Importance of Desilting Basins in

Run-of-River Hydro Projects in Himalayan Region
M Z Qamar1, M K Verma2, A P Meshram3
1&2

Research Officer,
Assistant Research Officer,
1, 2 & 3
Central Water & Power Research Station, Pune (India) - 411 024
3

ziaul_qamar@rediffmail.com
2
manoj_rajyog@rediffmail.com
3
asit.meshram@gmail.com

Abstract The natural resources of Himalayas in terms of hydro

power generation are not only crucial for the Himalayan states of
India, but very important for the whole country. These states
seem to be keen in exploiting their vast hydro electricity potential
for net revenue earning. However, due to weak geological
conditions and steep slopes these rivers carry a huge quantity of
sediment with them. The suspended part of this sediment causes
problems after getting entry through trash racks of power
intakes in hydropower projects constructed in Himalayan region.
This paper describes the elimination of suspended sediment in
run-of-river (ROR) hydro power projects by means of providing
desilting basins.

II. TYPES OF HYDRO POWER PROJECTS

Keywords Desilting chamber, settling efficiency, silt flushing

tunnel, suspended sediment concentration, inlet transition, outlet
transition.

Broadly speaking, there are three types of hydro power

projects namely, storage or impoundment type, run-of-river or
diversion type and pumped storage type.

I. INTRODUCTION
Many ROR hydropower projects have been commissioned in
Himalayan region and many more are being constructed /
planned in India, Bhutan and Nepal. The suspended part of
sediment load carried by Himalayan Rivers mainly consisting
of quartz particles (hardness 7 on Mohs scale) enters into the
water conductor system through power intake. These projects
generally utilize a very high water head sometimes ranging
from 700 to 800 m. If this water along with huge quantity of
suspended sediment load is allowed in the power house with
such a great velocity, it will cause lot of damage to the
turbines and other under water parts due to abrasion and
wearing effect. One such example of damage to the turbines
due to sediment is shown in photo 1.
To tackle this suspended sediment problem, some approach
has to be planned during the design stage of the project.
Provision of desilting basins in these projects is one of the
widely used methods to deal with this problem.

Damaged runner
New runner
Photo 1: Damage to the runner due to sediment

A. Storage / impoundment type hydropower project

The most common type of hydropower plant is with an
impoundment facility. In this system a large reservoir is
created by constructing a dam to store river water for major
hydro power project. Water released from the reservoir flows
through a turbine, spinning it, which in turn activates a
generator to produce electricity. The water is released through
power intake either to meet peak electricity demands or base
load needs or through spillways to maintain a constant
reservoir level.
B. Run-of-river or diversion type hydropower project
In run-of-river or diversion type hydro power projects, a small
reservoir is created by constructing a dam / diversion weir to
divert river flow through head race tunnel to an adjacent
valley utilizing the available head for power generation. In
run-of-river hydroelectric stations diurnal storage is used to
meet peak electricity demands. These projects have small or
no reservoir capacity.

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Special Issue 3, February 2014)
International Conference on Trends in Mechanical, Aeronautical, Computer, Civil, Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICMACE14)

C. Pumped storage type hydropower project

When the demand for electricity is low, pumped storage
facility stores energy by pumping water from a lower
reservoir to an upper reservoir. During periods of peak
electrical demand, the water is released through turbines and
stored in the lower reservoir. This method produces electricity
to supply high peak demands by moving water between
reservoirs at different elevations. At times of low electrical
demand, excess generation capacity is used to pump water
back into the higher reservoir.

through desilting basin and SFT is controlled by provision of

control gates at the outlet. Generally, desilting basins are
designed for 90 % removal of suspended sediment particles of
size 0.2 mm and above. However, basins may be designed to
eliminate particles finer /coarser than 0.2 mm which will
increase / decrease length of the basin and in turn adds /
reduces cost of the project. This can be decided by carrying
out the comparative study considering aspects such as
replacement / maintenance of underwater parts, revenue loss
and local site conditions. A typical plan and longitudinal
section of desilting basin is shown in figure 2 and cross

III. DESILTING BASIN

Desilting basins have become an integral part of the water
conductor system of ROR hydropower projects to minimize
the impact of damage due to suspended sediment. Desilting
basins are provided just after power intake and discharge is
passed through them before entry into the head race tunnel.
Desilting basins are huge and costly underground structures,
generally, constructed inside the hills and sometimes size is as
large as 525 m long 15 m wide and 27.5 m deep (Nathpa
Jhakri). A typical layout of water conductor system for a runof river hydropower project is shown in figure 1.
section in figure 3.
Figure 2: Typical plan and L-section of desilting basin

Figure 1: Typical layout of water conductor system for

ROR hydropower project

In case of desilting basins the cross sectional area of flow is

increased so as to achieve a reduction in forward velocity
which ultimately induces the settlement of the suspended
sediment. The silt flushing tunnel (SFT) is provided below the
desilting basin which is connected with main basin by
provision of openings at the bottom slab of the desilting basin.
This settled sediment is flushed out through silt flushing
tunnel and discharged into the river downstream of the dam.
An excess discharge of 15 to 20 % of design discharge is
taken from the power intake into the desilting basin for
flushing of the settled sediment from SFT. The discharge

Bottom slab
SFT 1.5 m
deep

Figure 3: Typical cross section of desilting basin

A. Types of desilting basins

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Special Issue 3, February 2014)
International Conference on Trends in Mechanical, Aeronautical, Computer, Civil, Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICMACE14)

Various types of desilting basins and their mode of

classification are indicated in table 1.

TABLE 1
TYPES OF DESILTING BASINS

Basis of Classification

Type of basin

Mode of construction

Natural or artificial

Method of cleaning

Manual or mechanical or
hydraulic removal of deposition

Mode of operation

Continuous or intermittent

Type of flow

Open channel or Pressure flow

Configuration / layout

Single or multiple unit

B. Design aspects of desilting basins

The performance of desilting basins depends upon the
reduction in velocity and turbulence, provision of adequate
length of the basin for achieving the desired settlement and the
skimming arrangements at the outlet [1]. However, the settled
sediment is required to be removed periodically or
continuously to maintain its settling efficiency. Thus, though
the design of the desilting basin includes two main parts viz.
i. Settling efficiency and
ii. Flushing system

large velocity at the inlet has to mix satisfactorily in a

desilting basin and a proper diffusion / dispersion is to be
achieved. From the study of the mechanism of the dispersion
of the jet in the water body, it has been seen that the region
of the expansion of flow is the region of appreciable
modification of mean flow pattern and the region of
appreciable eddy motion. From the model studies of these
basins a bed slope of between 2.0 and 2.3 was found to be
satisfactory.
3) Size of the basin: The ideal horizontal settling basin
as shown in figure 4, demonstrates the basic theory of
sedimentation developed by Hazen [2]. The following
assumptions are made: - uniform distribution of flow and
suspended solids at entry to settling zone; quiescent flow;
solids entering deposition zone are not re-suspended.
Consider a sediment particle entering the basin at point x:

4)
x

Following aspects are also required to be taken into

consideration:
1) Location and orientation: Generally, desilting basin
should be located as near the power intake as possible to
achieve the desired control and to minimize the sedimentation
in the approach channel. However, the location of the basin
too near the intake would create a problem due to the
turbulence downstream of the intake. The basin is also
required to be properly oriented with respect to the
alignment of the inlet tunnel on upstream to achieve
satisfactory distribution of flow as naturally as possible.
For this purpose, the basin may be located in the reach where
at least a straight length equal to ten times the average width
of the channel or diameter of the inlet tunnel is available on
the upstream.
2) Inlet transition: The flow area in the desilting basin
is required to be increased for reducing velocity to induce the
settlement of sediment. This increase in area is achieved by
suitable horizontal and vertical divergence. For obtaining the
satisfactory distribution of flow, the flow with relatively

Figure 4: Concept of ideal settling basin

t s = d/w
Retention time, t R = basin volume / discharge = d A / Q
Settling time,

Where d = flow depth; A = mean plan area of basin; Q =

discharge.
For quiescent settling, all particles of settling velocity w are
removed when retention time equals settling time:
i.e.

d A / Q = d/w, or Q/A = w

In general for both ideal and real basins, the ratio wA /Q can
be regarded as a dimensionless indicator of the physical
ability of a basin of plan area A to remove particles of settling
velocity w at supply discharge Q.
In case of ideal settling basins, for discrete particles:

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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Special Issue 3, February 2014)
International Conference on Trends in Mechanical, Aeronautical, Computer, Civil, Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICMACE14)

Removal is independent of basin depth and flowthrough velocity,

For a given discharge and suspended sediment load,
removal is a function of basin surface area.

and Standards of USSR i.e. TCaS [7], H.A. Einstein [8] and
Hippola [9] are in use. These functions are based on
gravitational, diffusion or probability theory of the sediment
transport.

In case of real desilting basins the higher velocity incoming

flow enters the main basin which causes turbulence in its
initial reaches. Therefore, effect of turbulence is also being
considered as opposed to ideal settling basins. Camp [3] based
his classic approach to settling basin design of the work of
Dobbins [4]. After making simplifying assumptions that (a)
fluid velocity, and (b) the turbulent mixing coefficient are the
same throughout the fluid, Camp derived a relation for settling
efficiency :

5) Outlet transition: The centre line of outlet should

coincide with the axis of desilting basin for uniform
withdrawal / skimming of top layers of flow over the entire
width of basin. The outlet should be as high and as wide as
possible. Narrow outlets or outlets located on the side would
result in a reduction in the effective length of the basin.

=f

wA w
,

Q v*

Where v* is the shear velocity and w / v* can be regarded as

a dimensionless indicator of distribution of suspended
sediment in vertical. Camps solution to equation is shown
graphically in Figure 5.

6) Size and slope of the hopper: The slope of the

hoppers is required to be steeper than the angle of repose of
the suspended sediment to allow the sediment to slip into
the openings at the bottom connecting to the flushing
conduits/pipes underneath.
In the case of narrow desilting
basins, instead of individual rectangular hopper, a continuous
hopper bottom side with sediment accumulation trench below
is preferable. The spacing of the openings between the settling
trench and flushing conduit is decided in such a way that the
top of the dunes formed between the successive openings
would not protrude in the settling zone above. Based on model
studies, the preferable side slope of hopper is 40 0.
7) Size of silt flushing tunnel: Size of the flushing tunnel
is required to be decided for efficient transport of the
sediment. From the experience of studies carried out at
CWPRS, Pune, it is seen that minimum velocity of 3.0 m/s is
required for efficient functioning of the tunnels. In flushing
system of desilting basins, the concentration is likely to be
more due to higher settling efficiency. The flow in flushing
system is a pressure flow since the sediment enters in
flushing tunnel through the openings from main basin.
The flushing discharge is controlled by a gate at downstream
end.

1/6

Figure 5: Camps solution for settling basin efficiency

The shear velocity in the relation is given by:

Shear velocity,

v*

gRS

Where R = hydraulic mean depth, and S = hydraulic gradient

which is calculated from a boundary resistance equation such
as Mannings and essentially depends on flow through
velocity. For dimensioning of desilting basins, various
sediment removal functions such as proposed by C.P. Vetter
[5], T.R. Camp [3], Hunter Rouse [6] Technical Conditions

8) Size and spacing of openings: The first opening from

the desilting basin to flushing conduit is required to be larger
to allow removal for higher rate of deposition and larger size
of particles. Though, no definite criteria can be suggested,
from experience of model studies for desilting basins for
various projects, size of the first opening should be adequate
to pass 20 to 30 % of the flushing discharge with a velocity
of 3.0 m/s. The total area of the openings can be broadly
estimated for passing the remaining discharge with velocity
of 3.0 m/s. The size of the openings may decrease
progressively towards the downstream as concentration and
size of the sediment settling goes on decreasing towards
downstream. This reduction could be done in steps on the

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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Special Issue 3, February 2014)
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basis of the practical considerations. It has also been observed

that the smaller size of the material settling near the outlet
end forms a reverse ramp at the upstream edge of the
skimming weir. The last opening should, therefore, be a little
larger than the opening just on its upstream.
IV. HYDRAULIC MODEL STUDIES
In absence of any definite criteria, the design of desilting
basins is based on many assumptions, broad guidelines and
site specific conditions. Verification of these assumptions and
adequacy of layout as well as other design aspects is therefore
required to be tested by conducting hydraulic model studies.
The basic aim of conducting these model studies is to judge
the hydraulic performance of desilting basin in terms of
settling efficiency and flushing efficacy of the settled
sediment. Central Water & Power Research Station, Pune has
conducted about thirty five physical model studies for
desilting basin for various hydropower projects in India and
abroad. On the basis of drawings supplied by concerned
project authorities, the model of desilting basin is fabricated
partly in fibre glass with transparent perspex windows and top
dome to observe the flow conditions and sediment movement
/ deposition pattern. These models are fabricated to a
geometrically similar scale ranging from 1: 20 to 1: 35
depending upon discharge, their shape and size and
availability of water head.
The inlet transition, outlet transition and silt flushing tunnel
below the desilting basin are also fabricated in fully
transparent perspex sheets. Generally, the model of desilting
basin is tested for inlet sediment concentration of 5000 ppm or
as otherwise indicated by the project authorities. A typical
view of desilting basin in model is shown in photo 2 and inlet
and outlet transitions in photo 3 and 4.

Photo 3: View of Inlet Transition in Model

Silt Flushing Tunnel

Photo 4: View of Outlet Transition in Model

For simulation of suspended sediment crushed and sieved

walnut shell powder is used. This is a light weight material
with specific gravity of 1.32. The material is injected into the
desilting basin as per designed inlet concentration along with
flow at the inlet. The simulation of sediment between model
and prototype is done by fall (settling) velocity criteria.
V. DISCUSSIONS
The known volumetric quantity of sediment on the basis of
inlet discharge and sediment concentration is injected in the
model. There are two sediment collection chambers
constructed at the downstream of the model one each for head
race tunnel and SFT respectively. The sediment deposited in
desilting basin and flushed through SFT is collected in SFT
collection chamber and measured volumetrically. The settling
efficiency of the desilting basin is found out as follows:
( )

Photo 2: View of Desilting Basin Model

The settling efficiency obtained by above equation is the

overall settling efficiency for entire range of particle sizes of
inlet gradation curve. However, the objective is to find the
settling efficiency of 0.2 mm sediment particle size. To find
out the efficiency for particle size of 0.2 mm, calculations are

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carried out using the T.R. Camps criteria and these analytical
results are compared with physical model study results to
obtain settling efficiency for 0.2 mm particle size.
As indicated earlier, desilting basins are designed for 90 %
removal of sediment particle size of 0.2 mm and above. If the
efficiency is considerably less or more than 90 % then length
of basin is increased or decreased and again tested on the
model.
The efficacy of flushing system is judged by visual model
observations. In case there is some sediment deposition on bed
of inlet transition or in SFT, the design is slightly modified
and again tested on the model. An example of sediment
deposition at the inlet transition is shown in photo 5.

various parameters viz. inlet discharge, inlet sediment

concentration & gradation, gross head, desired settling
efficiency and flushing efficacy. Moreover, design of desilting
basins is based on various assumptions and broad guidelines.
Therefore, in spite of proper site planning and designing, their
hydraulic performance is required to be tested on a hydraulic
model to obtain optimum design for desired settling efficiency
of suspended sediment for each project.
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank Mr. S. Govindan, Director,
CWPRS for his constant encouragement, guidance and kind
permission for publishing this paper. The authors are also
thankful to the various project authorities for providing the
necessary financial support and data for conducting the model
studies in absence of which it would not have been possible to
conduct so many model studies at CWPRS, Pune.
References
[1] CWPRS: Guidelines for Design of Desilting Basins (Pressure Flow),
2005.
[2] Hazen, A. on Sedimentation, Trans ASCE, Vol LIII, 1904, p 63.

Sediment deposition

[3] Camp, T.R. Sedimentation and the Design of settling tanks, Trans ASCE,
Vol 111, 1946, Paper No.2285.
[4] Dobbins, W.E. Effects of turbulence on sedimentation, Trans ASCE, Vol
109, 1944, p 629.

Photo 5: Sediment deposition on bed of inlet transition

On the basis of experience of CWPRS on findings of model

studies, a Technical Memorandum titled Guidelines for
design of desilting basins (pressure flow) was published in
year 2005. Another Technical Memorandum titled,
Guidelines for operation of desilting basins has been
published in year 2008 for practicing hydro engineers and
designers for efficient and trouble free use of these devices on
prototype. These memoranda are the only guidelines available
at present for the designers and are being immensely used for
the design and operation of desilting basins by various
agencies like NHPC, NTPC, SJVNL, Central Water
Commission and WAPCOS etc.

[5] Vetter, C.P.: Technical aspects of silt problem on Colorado river Civil
Engineering Vol.10, No.11, Nov.1940, pp 698-701.
[6] Rouse Hunter: "Engineering Hydraulics", John Wiley and Sons Inc. New
York-1949, pp 811-814.
[7] T. CaS: Technical Conditions and Standards for designing settling basins
of hydropower stations- Moscow 1949.
[8] Einstein, H.A.: Final report spawning ground University of California
Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory 16 p, 2 tables 10 figs., 1965.
[9] Hippola, U.T.B.: Influence of suspended sediment distribution on settling
basin design International symposium of river mechanics Bangkok
Jan.1973, pp 277 to 288.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Desilting basins are integral part of water conductor system of
ROR hydropower projects in Himalayan region and are huge
and costly underground structures. Once put into operation, it
is very difficult to maintain and repair them. On the other
hand, each project has its own site specific design considering
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