(Proceedings, INDIA HYDRO 2005, 19–21 February 2005, New Delhi, pp. 40–49).
Deposition of sediment into the reservoir is a major challenge to the life of existing reservoir and its future development for the purpose of hydroelectricity and other use of water. With annual sediment deposition rate of 1–2%, Himalayan region is the worst sufferer of depleting storage capacity. Among varieties of consequences, erosion to hydraulic structures, damage to hydro-mechanical and electro-mechanical parts and forced outage of power plants is annually causing huge loss of revenue. The problem is severe with the medium sized reservoirs and dams without bottom outlets. Several options are available for three dimensional approaches of control, prevention and withstanding with sediment. Cost effective methods are being developed and experimented for the removal of deposited sediment from reservoirs. Serpentine Sediment Sluicer, SPSS, SSS and Inverted Cone type sluicing methods are based on the principle of Hydraulic sluicing by creating head difference between water surface and outlet point. a comparative study on Saxophone Sediment Sluicer and Inverted Cone in the laboratory shows that the Cone type sluicer has higher output but Saxophone sluicer has better operational advantage. Choice of available strategies for management of sediment in reservoir is project specific but the development of a reliable and cost effective method of hydraulic sluicing has the future for research and development in this area.
Sediment, Reservoir, Hydromechanical, Electro-mechanical parts, Forced outage, Power plants, Strategies for management
