Development of Bottom Panels in River Training

Two new specific projects show the development of the panels as permanent river training structures. New information and references concerning 6 yr. of progress in theory, scale models and experiments in situ are presented herein. The works on the Loire River in France are linked with the cooling system of a nuclear power plant; on the Chao Phya River, the project deals with the improvement of navigation over a 100-km long reach. After 14 yrs. of experiments on large and wide waterways in Africa and Asia, followed by training works on medium wide reaches in France and Thailand, the scope of bottom panels on alluvial river with a gentle slope has been broadly investigated. This comparatively inexpensive method has been quite well controlled, however, the feasibility of panels must always be studied very carefully under new hydraulic and economic conditions.