Hydraulic and earth engineering – Fluid control – treatment – or containment – Flow control
Patent
1995-02-14
1996-11-26
Graysay, Tamara L.
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Fluid control, treatment, or containment
Flow control
405 80, 405 92, 405 99, 405100, 405101, E02B 300, E02B 700, E02B 800, E02B 740
Patent
active
055778631
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to sluice gates, that is to say, gates for controlling the discharge of liquid from a high level source, such as, for example, a volume of liquid impounded by a weir or the like.
The invention was devised primarily for controlling the discharge of irrigating water from a farm dam, main supply channel or the like onto land to be irrigated or into a subsidiary distributor channel or the like in a flood irrigation reticulation system. Therefore it is described hereinafter primarily with regard to that application, however it will be appreciated that the invention is applicable to sluice gates for the release of impounded liquid generally.
BACKGROUND ART
Hitherto farmers have usually opened and closed sluice gates manually to release water from an impounded supply, distribution channel or the like onto land to be irrigated. The gates themselves have frequently comprised a closure element in the form of a flat leaf able to be raised or lowered bodily in upright guides at each side of a gateway, in the manner of a portcullis, to control flow through the gateway. In other instances swinging leaf gates analogous to conventional double doors have been used. It is also known to use portcullis type gates wherein the closure element is an arcuate leaf that swings up and down about a horizontal axis rather than sliding in guides as aforesaid.
It is known to use portcullis type gates wherein the closure element is a hollow body that may be filled with, and emptied of, water to assist in the lifting and lowering of same.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The farmer's aim is to release as much water as required and no more, not only to conserve water but also to contain costs. Unfortunately the quantity of water required for a particular field in any instance is somewhat indeterminate. It depends on the nature of the crop, the initial moisture content in the soil, the sunniness and windiness of the weather at the time, and so on. The result is that the farmer cannot readily plan ahead to release water to a time schedule, not only in view of those variables but also in view of the variable and maybe indeterminate nature of the flow rate for any particular setting of the gate.
Devices are known which monitor a field and respond to water to close an electric circuit or otherwise actuate a remote indicator. These may be used by the farmer to let him know when it would be appropriate to close the relevant sluice gate or gates, but this may often occur at night or other inconvenient time.
Thus, there is a need for self-actuating sluice gates, particularly for small, inexpensive gates suitable for use as feeder gates in open channel, farm irrigation systems, that may close in response to a signal from such a monitoring device, or to a similar signal sent from a remote signal generator under manual control, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sluice gate having that capability.
Having regard to the cost of distributing electrical power on farms it is desirable for the gate to use a self-contained, stored energy, power source. In preferred embodiments, that power source is a battery that is kept charged by a small solar panel on or near the gate. This requires the gate to draw only little power from the power source, and another object of the invention is to provide a gate having that capability.
This latter object is met by providing a gate that opens and closes under the influence of a water ballasted float which may fill from the high level source and drain to the low level outflow, wherein the only external power needed is that required to operate valve means controlling the flow of ballast water into or from the float.
A further object attained by preferred embodiments of the invention is to provide a self-actuating gate meeting the above mentioned desiderata that may be retro-fitted to existing or known sluice gateways of the kind found in open channel farm irrigation systems, and which are adapted to accommodate the presently used, manually operable, planar leaf, po
REFERENCES:
patent: 1986701 (1935-01-01), Zimmermann
patent: 3372549 (1968-03-01), French
patent: 3756032 (1973-09-01), Solinas
patent: 4103497 (1978-08-01), Colamussi et al.
Graysay Tamara L.
Mayo Tara L.
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