The influence of burrowing-type suction pipe geometrical and mechanical specifications on the hydro-suction method performance

Burrowing-type suction pipe method is a siphon dredging technique which removes sediment. This innovative technique attracted the attention of many researchers, recently, because of main advantages such as preventing water loss and conserving downstream environmental sustainability of dams. This study investigates the influence of geometrical and mechanical specifications of the suction pipe on output sediment concentration, as method performance. The specifications include suction pipe bottom hole diameter/spacing and buoyant weight of pipe bending. In this experimental research, the ratio of bottom holes diameter to pipe diameter was 0.25 and 0.5 and the space between bottom holes was 2, 3 and 4 times of holes diameter (s* = 2, 3, 4). Furthermore, the pipe bending buoyant weight parameter was changed from 0.037 to 0.132. The results showed that the performance at Do* = 0.25 is more stable and higher than Do* = 0.5. Also, the maximum performance for diameter ratio 0.25 and 0.5 occurs at s* = 2 and s* = 3, respectively. Moreover, the buoyant weight of pipe bending showed a remarkable effect on the method performance. Finally, this study revealed that the diameter ratio of 0.25, space ratio of 2 and buoyant parameter of 0.1 achieved the most performance.