ABSTRACT
The term ‘hydraulic structures’ covers a variety of works, ranging from dams and weirs, through hydroelectric development, navigation, irrigation, drainage, water supply, river training and coastal structures, to public- health engineering works. This chapter touches on the various types of hydraulic structure with emphasis on their modelling. The general layout of structures is determined primarily by their function and their relationship to and interaction with the surrounding body of water. One of the most frequent design problems is the provision of adequate discharge capacity at free or gated dam spillways, barrages, outlets, culverts, etc. The solutions of the discharge equations are invariably based on the continuity and energy or momentum equations, which can be found in many hydraulics textbooks. Aeration and air entrainment form one of the most frequent, but also intractable, problems encountered in the design of hydraulic structures, both large and small.
