The control structures commonly used in irrigation channels water intakes are inefficient in delivering the correct water volume to crops, collaborating to water waste and, hence, reducing the water use efficiency. The objective of this work was to determine the performance of an automatic discharge regulator in the control of the supplied discharge. The regulator was made of fiberglass and its evaluation was accomplished in a concrete channel belonging to the Hydraulic Laboratory of the Federal University of Viçosa, in Viçosa, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The evaluation was performed for all equipment discharge regulation options. In each regulation, the supplied discharge was determined for the upstream water level changing from 0.30 to 0.45 m. The regulator discharge mean variation, with regard to all regulation options, was of ± 2.3% of the mean discharge supplied by the equipment in each regulation option. The discharge variation of the developed equipment was smaller than the discharge variation of the structures commonly used to control the discharge in channels, showing that the automatic flow regulator is a good alternative to regulate discharges in open channels.
hydraulic automation; water control gates; open channels
