Debris- and Ice-Skimming Booms at Riverside Diversions

Hydraulic-design guidelines are presented for deploying debris- and ice-skimming booms at riverside diversions such as water intakes for thermal power stations, municipal water-supply facilities, and irrigation canals. Based on laboratory-flume tests and boom literature, the guidelines aim to reduce debris passage into and accumulations at diversions. Important design variables include boom distance out from the diversion entrance, boom orientation to the diversion, and boom draft. Optimal deployment of skimming booms is related to the flow field at riverside diversions. The flume tests established how these variables influence the physical processes governing skimming-boom performance, and they led to recommendations on effective deployment of straight and bent booms for debris flushing. Bent booms, which comprise two segments (one angled from upstream and one parallel to the diversion), are the more effective boom type for wider ranges of river and diversion flows.