Local automatic control modes in an experimental irrigation canal

Abstract

The paper presents two local PI automatic control modes developed, tuned and verified in an experimental automatic canal. The canal was used as a physical model and it will support further studies on canal automation domain. The control algorithms are installed in local PLC´s with the objective of controlling the water depths immediately upstream and downstream of the corresponding check gates. The strategy adopted to tune the PI controllers was to compare the frequency response of the state space model, which relies on the linearized Saint-Venant equations, with a simple model considering each canal pool as a reservoir (reservoir model). The obtained results for the control gains were validated by field tests. A few simulation results are also presented as well as the experimental facility and the main configuration of the SCADA developed for the canal supervision and monitoring.