Advances in Hydromery (Proceedings ofthe Exeter Symposium, July 1982). TANS Publ no. 134 Hydrometric cableways in the Yangtze Valley CHEN YOULIE & ZHONG GUOZHEN Hydrology Department of Yangtze Valley Planning Office, fuhan, China ABSTRACT The hydronetric cableway is the principal measuring device in the Yangtze valley for deep, swiftly flowing and violently fluctuating streams. This paper describes technical problems which have to be investigated and resolved when the cableway is used. Froblens involve layout of the cable, principles and methods of depth measurement using @ sounding weight, measures for eliminating the effects of cable vibration, signal transmission and remote operation for velocity, depth, and sediment measurements, and instruments and methods for depth and sediment measurements. INTRODUCTION There are many problems associated with the gauging of discharge during flood periods on flashy streams. Gauging from boats for instance is very difficult and unsafe. To solve hydrometric problems in the Yangtze Valley, a hydrometric cableway was Seveloped in the early 1950's. In the intervening 20 years of practice, efficiency and accuracy of hydrometric technique have been increased very significantly. Today, cableways have more mature and advanced gauging equipment and they possess many advantages including the sparing use of manpower, secure operation, shorter times for velocity measurements, increased accuracy of measurements, and enhancement in ability to monitor floods etc. These improvenents have been brought about by a number of important technical developments. An economical, practical, convenient and safe layout of the Cable system and electro-mechanical equipnent. 2. Sounding principles and methods of using a weight suspended under the cableway. 3. Elimination of the effects of cable oscillation. 4, Renote sensing of depth, velocity and sediment measurements. 5. Application of an ultrasonic sounding method. 6. Instrument and methods for sediment measurement. LAYOUT OF CABLEWAY ‘The hydronetric cableway consists of a main cable, operating cable, towers and lightning arresters (conductors), driving winch and signal apparatus, and various appurtenances (Fig.1). It is8 Chen Youlie & Zhong Guozhen controlled by an operating console situated on the river bank. ‘here are three (concurrent) functions, river traversing, suspension, and vertical positioning of the current meter. Such an arrangement makes winch structure simple and introduces synchronous operation of traversing and vertical positioning A moveable pulley-block and balance weight are installed to reduce power requirements of motor drive. The cableway can however be operated by hand. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF DEPTH MEASURENENT AND CORRECTION OF ANGLE OF OBLIQUITY Measurement of water depth by sounding weight suspended on a cable is essentially the measurement by depth counter of suspension cable length released from the driving winch (i.e. wet line length) as the weight descends fron water surface to the river bed. In the process, if tension of suspension cable remained constant and no oblique angle of suspension occurred, the measured length would equal the vertical depth. tn reality this rarely happens because of variable forces exerted on the cable. These include, the floating force (buoyancy) on the sounding weight Fo, the sudden reduction in tension F3 produced as the weight makes contact with the river bed, the inertial force F; and accelerating force Fz produced when the winch starts and stops, and the drag Force Pz of flow on suspension cable sounding weight and instrument. To eliminate the influence of Fg and Fz, cable length measurement, commences when the suspension weight is just immersed below the water surface and it terminates as it just makes contact with the river bed. Operating cable Movable Distance puliey-block ounter spa Depth counter — | suspension eable reducer box so ples | Litting cbte motor DY [IE Botances % . Driving Crane winch” — winch FIG.1 Simplified diagram of the cablewayHydrometric Cableways in the Yangtze valley 9 ‘he angle of the suspension cable is determined mainly by two forces acting together; the sounding weight Go, and the drag force Pz. This results in both elastic deformation of the main cable and its displacesent, which in turn causes other forces acting on the whole cable system to change. ‘There is a consequent change in the height of the hanging point of the main cable and in the length of the operating cable. This change shows up in measurement by the depth counter and therefore affects accuracy. Analyses of tests have helped to identify all major factors and correction for oblique angle of suspension is carried out using the following criteria. 1 Droop of main cable he droop of main cable fy changes with the resultant load Py of all forces. The increment of the droop Af caused by change of resultant load results in the deviation of the measured depth; Af 4s directly proportional to the increment of the resultant. load Ac, inversely proportional to the rate of Groep fnax/l and is relative to the position of the hanging point of the main cable. If a heavicr sounding weight and a larger rate of droop are adopted, the error of the measured depth resulting from an oblique angle less than 30° will be less than 1% and it can generally be neglected. 2 Rise of the hanging point ‘The oblique angle of the suspension cable is increased by Aisplacesent of the main cable AZ in the downstream direction (Fig.2). The line of main cable effectively turns through an angle 8, with f, as radius, and the hanging point rises AH to give an apparent increase in measured depth AH given by the expression: Aa = £, sec 8 (I~ a a jp And Ena /E Q = the weight of the carriage (kg) q. - the weight of unit length of main cable a’ - the weight of unit length of operating cable. ‘The value of Ai" increases with the angle of obliquity by approximately @ degrees.10 Chen Youlie & Zhong Guozhen FIG.2 The value of ANY 3. Increase in operating cable length The operating cable will be displaced relative to the main cable (Fig-3). The effect of this is to raise the sounding weight by a distance AL which may be caiculated approximately fro 2.2 an =k ey x7e20 @ fmax where c, 4f8% 15 the position coefficient of the carriage. 4 Variation of curve length ‘The tension of the operating cable depends upon the force exerted on the suspension cable. ‘The increment, 4S, of the length of curve depends on the weight, G, of the sounding weight: if this is sufficiently qreat Js can be neglected. FIG.3 The value of ALiydrometric Cableways in the Yangtze valley 11 In summary, elastic deformation and displacement of the cables are factors which can introduce errors in measured depth, and corrections, outlined above, need to be made and added to both wet. and dry line corrections (fia and Aw) to determine the value of depth. If a heavy sounding weight and a large degree of droop are adopted, such that Af and As are negligible, the overall correction 'm for deformation and displacement can be calculated from the equation. a 2 a ab bt ep x e626 @ mm 72 Experiments on the Yangtze River show close agreement between measured values of and values calculated from (3) (Pig.4). Tolerance of estimat¥s is determined to be +5%. Am 49) 30) 20 The curve from formula (31 | 7 o2|__s aff on Oz oa 08 0810 198 FIG.4 The corrected displacement value from real measurements in Bai He station compared with the one from the equation (3) The depth is given by the equation, 7 Ba = bw = dm oy Studies at Bai He gauging station and others on the Yangtze River show that accuracy of estimates using (4) is in the range 2.8 to 5.08 (Table 1). Corresponding calculation of discharge, compared 4raBLe Demonstration of water depth Name Number Precisely Precisely Method Mean of Station of measured measured of systematic river Measure maxim maximum compari- error ments for water oblique son o comparison depth angle Han Bai He us 21.5 29° pared ° River with the reading on depth counter fu Wa Long 61 25.8 40° Compared 0.5 River with echo sounder Jia Bei Pei 42 35.0 48° compared 40.8 Lin with echo River sounder a uoyzong Buowz 9 aFTnoA UOUDTABLE 2 Demonstration for discharge Mame snumber Range of Precisely Method = Error Maximum Mean of Station of discharge measured of error systematic river measure > maximum compari- (%) error ments for (m’/s)_—-velocity son @ ‘comparison (m/s) Han Bai He a 337 - 5.39 Compared 3.33.6 0.3 River 14800 with gauging oat Qing chang 15 273 - Compared 3.8 © ~4.0 0.2 River Yang 6740 with gauging boat Aorrea oz35uez 949 UT shea’ ofzz0WoIPAN e14 Chen Youlie & zhong Guozhen with gauging carried out from boats, show differences of 3.3 to 3.88 (Table 2). Without allowance for dm these differences would have been 10 to 208 for depth and 6 to 8 for discharge. POWERED WINCH AND SILICON CONTROLLED SPEED REGULATOR Stepwise speed regulation of the powered winch gives rise to cable oscillation and makes the positioning of suspension cable and current meter difficult. Tt also makes depth and velocity measurement uncertain. In the early 1970's Chinese hydrologists began to apply techniques of silicon controlled stepless speed regulation of the powered winch and provided thereby for greater range in speeds of control (e.g. between 1.0 m/min and 8.0 m/ain). Speed of the winch and its regulation are now not restricted; it has been denonstrated that the developed controls eleminate cable oscillation and increase accuracy of positioning and measuring. Speed of control also helps to avert problems of entanglement with floating debris. SIGNAL TRANSMISSION ON CABLEWAY ‘The signals of velocity and depth as well as sediment measurement, are transmitted by means of a circuit whose main components are the suspension cable and water body (Fig.5). The sounding weight ‘and suspension cable are insulated by a porcelain insulator. ‘The signal source, which consists of the current meter switch K, and underwater sealed battery E, produces d.c. or a.c. signals. 3. To anchor block —— > To driving L. q crane winch ——8 RY : FIG.5 The diagram of signal transmission on cablewayHydrometric Cableways in the Yangtze valley 16 Weight + Suspension cable Main cable Operating cable Water surface conducting electrode Principle of transmission is based on electrical conductivity of water. It is well known that when two conducting electrodes connected with a battery are put into water, current flows between the electrodes, and that amplitude of the current increases with ‘the area of the electrodes and decreases with the distance between the electrodes. In the case of a gauging station, river water is in direct contact with the channel bed. One electrode is therefore placed in the water and another in the ground such that when the two are connected to the battery current flows through both ground and the water between them. This current is correlated to the area of the electrodes and the chemical composition and the conductivity of soil. Tests have proved that the current is not influenced by the variation of the distance between the two electrodes in the direction of river width, which means that resistance of the water body and ground have negligible effect. Resistance between the electrodes can be considered as the sun of the contact resistances between the electrodes and water body and ground. (The latter is also called ground resistance.) ‘he cableway is earthed at a number of points (shown in Pig.5) thereby creating several shunt circuits. Signals are transmitted to the signal receiver through the conductor composed of water surface conducting electrode, water body and ground. (A, B are the input terminals of the receiver.) The majority of the signal current is consumed in the other shunt circuits. Assuming that the weight, main cable and operating cable have constant contact areas when they are connected to the driving winch, and the underwater part of the suspension cable has variable contact resistance R, with the water, increasing as immersion length increases, the equivalent scheme of the cableway, ignoring the resistance of steel cable itself, is shown in Fig-6; where Ry, R3, R4 and Rs are the resistances respectively of Water surface conducting electrode, water body, ground and contacts. > FIG.6 The equivalent scheme of the cableway - I16 chen Youlie & zhong Guozhen Input voltage to the receiver is given by RRB RRR, ee RR) * RR © ‘4 where E is the voltage of underwater signal source and R, is input impedance. Receiver design and transmission efficiency of the cableway depend upon the input signal U,_,, obtained fron above formula, Which in turn is sensitive to conditions of soil geology in the locality. When there ave gyound and geclogy conditions euch that ground resistances Rj, Ry are very large, (e.g. more than 100 ohns) U, _ is easily designed for. When however Ry, Ry axe not large, it is necessary to insulate both the main cable and operating cable fron the suspension cable, the winch and the ground, to reduce consumption of available ent signals. After insulating, Rj, Rg can be as large as 50 chms or more and current consumption in other shunt circuits becomes negligible. ‘The equivalent scheme then simplifies (Fig.7). FIG.7 Tho equivalent scheme of the cableway ~ IT ‘The input voltage U,_, for the heavily insulated scheme is ae given by Ry (Ry +, 5 OR anes eee 6) \-B RAR, REAR) re) Uyg calculated from equation (6) is greater than that calculated #258 equation (5) and generally satisfactory for the receiver. Inspection of equation (6) indicates that further research 1s required on the relation botween and Upp for different depths Of iimorsion, and on methods to ineresse the value of R, to provide even better results. THE APPLICATION OF THE ULTRASONIC SOUNDING METHOD ‘The echo sounder has been used widely in gauging boats. For use in cableways a number of features or problems need to be recognisedHydrometric Cableways in the Yangtze Valley 17 1, ‘Transducers of the echo sounder axe Fixed to the sounding weight. The insulated wire used for conducting sound impulses suffers extraneous influences of water flowing past it, and for this reason it is difficult to ensure that the echo sounder works normally 2. The echo sounder can be used for both measuring water depth of verticals and positioning observation points; 3. Bed terrain of flashy streams is complicated, so that actual water depths tend to be less than those gauged using only a single transducer transmitting downwards because of the influence of the cone-shaped ultrasonic beam. Tt is also difficult to position observation points in shallow streams because the operator cannot see from his remote position on the river bank. 4. To solve the above problems, water body and steel cable are again used as the conducting circuit. Also several technical problems including the transmission and reception of weak signals and interference-free measures, have been studied and resolved. This makes it possible to use the sounder with smaller power than would normally be required for velocities of 4.0 m/s. Two transducers are fixed on the sounding weight, one transmitting upwards to measure distance from the water surface to the weight, and the other transmitting downwards to measure from the weight to river bed. In this way, not only can position of observation points be determined but the measurement of water depth can also be carried out for any vertical. It is therefore possible by laying the sounding weight on the bed, to obtain accurate vater depths and transmitting upwards even in streans where bed terrain is complicated. REFERENCES Bureau of Hydrology, YvPO, The Hydrometric Cableway. Zhong Guozhen, The Method of Correction for the Angle of Obliquity in Water Depth Measurement. ‘Technology of Water Conservancy and Water and Electricity, trial issue, 1979.