Sluice gate how does it work

Historically, sluice gates proved useful in mills. A mill sluice was known as a millrace , and would often turn a waterwheel or turbine, which could be then used to power equipment needed in sawmills and gristmills. The millrace was often regulated by sluice gates to decrease or increase the flow of water, depending on when it was needed.

A sluice gate can be known by other names depending on geographic location. For example, in the coastal plains of Sommerset, England, the gates are known as clyce or clyse. In Guyana, they are referred to as kokers. One concern with the use of sluice gates in rice fields is that fish often cannot navigate through them.

In Bangladesh, for instance, much of the flood plain is used to grow rice, and water level is regulated for its optimal growth. Since sluice gates have been used for this, fish became scarce where they were once plentiful.

Traditionally, the fish have formed an important part of the diet of the poor who inhabit the region. Once the problem was recognized, guidelines were established for gate use, ensuring that fish can travel where they need to so that local fishing remains viable. Heather Phillips.

Please enter the following code:. Login: Forgot password? Sewage treatment plants, mines, mills and refineries also employ this technology. There are several styles of sluice gates. Flap gates are vertical, automated and rely on pressure sensors to open and close. Gates of this type without pressure sensors are called vertical rising sluice gates. Radial sluice gates consist of cylindrical sections placed horizontally across the water.

Each gate has a series of embedded rods which the gate operator controls to manipulate the cylinder and adjust the water flow. The fourth type of sluice gate is the needle gate, which operates on the same hydrodynamic principle as a needle dam. Each needle gate features an array of large, thick, freestanding needles braced vertically against a horizontal scaffold.

The pressure of the water flowing through the gate holds the needles in place. Miniature sluice gates called sluice boxes are staples of small mining operations.