Sluice#Placer mining applications

A sluice is a water channel containing a sluice gate, a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

The term sluice gate refers to a movable gate allowing water to flow under it. It is a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level. When a sluice is lowered, water may spill over the top, in which case the gate operates as a weir. Usually, a mechanism drives the sluice up or down. This may be a simple, hand-operated, chain pulled/lowered, worm drive or rack-and-pinion drive, or it may be electrically or hydraulically powered. A flap sluice, however, operates automatically, without external intervention or inputs.{{Cn|date=July 2021}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2025}}{{main|Gate valve}}

File:Vannsluse.svg

; Flap sluice gate: A fully automatic type, controlled by the pressure head across it; operation is similar to that of a check valve. It is a gate hinged at the top. When pressure is from one side, the gate is kept closed; a pressure from the other side opens the sluice when a threshold pressure is surpassed.

; Vertical rising sluice gate: A plate sliding in the vertical direction, which may be controlled by machinery.

; Radial sluice gate: A structure, where a small part of a cylindrical surface serves as the gate, supported by radial constructions going through the cylinder's radius. On occasion, a counterweight is provided.

; Rising sector sluice gate: Also a part of a cylindrical surface, which rests at the bottom of the channel and rises by rotating around its centre.

; Needle sluice: A sluice formed by a number of thin needles held against a solid frame through water pressure as in a needle dam.

; Fan gate: ({{langx|nl|waaiersluis}}) This type of gate was invented by the Dutch hydraulic engineer {{ill|Jan Blanken|nl}} in 1808. He was Inspector-General for Waterstaat (Water resource management) of the Kingdom of Holland at the time.{{cite book|author=Blanken J. Jz.|title=Nieuw ontwerp tot het bouwen van minkostbare sluizen, welke alle de vereischten der bekende sluizen bezitten, en daarenboven de steeds ontbrekende, meer uitgebreide nuttigheden van dezelve vervullen kunnen|date=1808|language=nl}}; {{cite book|author=Goudriaan, Adrianus Franciscus|title=Verhandeling over het ontwerp van sluizen, volgens de uitgave van den heer inspecteur generaal bij den waterstaat van het Koningrijk Holland, J. Blanken Jansz., het eerste aan de Benschopper Sluis beproefd: opgesteld ter aanleiding tot eene naauwkeurige overweginge van hetzelve, in vergelijking met zijnen over dit onderwerp gedrukten brief, en het antwoord door eerstgenoemden daar op uitgegeven|date=1809|publisher=Van Esveldt-Holtrop|place=Amsterdam|language=nl}} The fan door has the special property that it can open in the direction of high water solely using water pressure. This gate type was primarily used to purposely inundate certain regions, for instance in the case of the Hollandic Water Line. Nowadays this type of gate can still be found in a few places, for example in Gouda. A fan gate has a separate chamber that can be filled with water and is separated on the high-water-level side of the sluice by a large door. When a tube connecting the separate chamber with the high-water-level side of the sluice is opened, the water level, and with that the water pressure in this chamber, will rise to the same level as that on the high-water-level side. As there is no height difference across the larger gate, it exerts no force. However the smaller gate has a higher level on the upstream side, which exerts a force to close the gate. When the tube to the low water side is opened the water level in the chamber will fall. Due to the difference in the surface areas of the doors there will be a net force opening the gate.

File:Sluice Gate.pngSluice gates are one of the most common hydraulic structures {{Cite book|last=White|first=Frank M.|title=Fluid mechanics|date=2011|publisher=McGraw Hill|isbn=978-0-07-742241-7|edition=7th |location=New York, N.Y.|oclc=548423809}} used to control or measure the flow in open channels.{{Cite journal|last1=Silva|first1=Carlos Otero|last2=Rijo|first2=Manuel|date=June 2017|title=Flow Rate Measurements under Sluice Gates|url=http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29IR.1943-4774.0001177|journal=Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering|language=en|volume=143|issue=6|pages=06017001|doi=10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001177|bibcode=2017JIDE..143R7001S |issn=0733-9437|hdl=10174/22465|hdl-access=free}} Vertical rising sluice gates are the most common in open channels and can operate under two flow regimes: free flow and submerged flow. The most important depths in the designing of sluice gates are:

{{block indent |left=1.5 |text={{plainlist}}

• $Y\_U$: upstream depth
• $Y\_G$: opening of the sluice gate
• $Y\_m$: the minimum depth of flow after the sluice gate
• $Y\_\{J1\}$: the initial depth of the hydraulic jump
• $Y\_\{J2\}$: the secondary depth of the hydraulic jump
• $Y\_D$: downstream depth

{{endplainlist}}}}

A mill race, leet, flume, penstock or lade is a sluice channeling water toward a water mill.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

{{see also|Log driving|Timber rafting}}

In the mountains of the United States, sluices transported logs from steep hillsides to downslope sawmill ponds or yarding areas. Nineteenth-century logging was traditionally a winter activity for men who spent summers working on farms. Where there were freezing nights, water might be applied to logging sluices every night so a fresh coating of slippery ice would reduce friction of logs placed in the sluice the following morning.{{cite book| title=Two Feet Between the Rails (Volume 1 - The Early Years) |author=Jones, Robert C. |publisher=Sundance Books |year=1979 |isbn=0-913582-17-4}}

• The terms sluice, sluice gate, knife gate, and slide gate are used interchangeably in the water and wastewater control industry.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• In the Somerset Levels, sluice gates are known as clyse{{cite web | title=FOCUS on Industrial Archaeology No. 68, June 2007 | work=Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society website | url=http://www.hias.hampshire.org.uk/Focus68/focus68.htm | access-date=2007-10-30 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071110121504/http://www.hias.hampshire.org.uk/Focus68/focus68.htm |archive-date = 2007-11-10}} or clyce.Dunning R. W. (2004). History of the County of Somerset: Volume 8: The Poldens and the Levels (Victoria County History). Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|1-904356-33-8}}.{{cite web | title='Huntspill', A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 8: The Poldens and the Levels | work=British History Online | url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15110#s20 | access-date=2007-10-30}}
• Most of the inhabitants of Guyana refer to sluices as kokers.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}
• The Sinhala people in Sri Lanka, who had an ancient civilization based on harvested rain water, refer to sluices as Horovuwa.{{cite web | url = http://www.slageconr.net/slsnet/9thicsls/individual/abs164.pdf | page = 1 | title = The water regulation technology of ancient Sri Lankan reservoirs: The Bisokotuwa sluice | work = slageconr.net | access-date =14 August 2012}}

File:MagomeSluice.jpg|A small wooden sluice in Magome, Japan, used to power a waterwheel

File:Sluice gates-KayEss-1.jpeg |Sluice gates near Henley, on the River Thames

File:Gorinchem - deur van de Korenbrugsluis.jpg|The Korenbrugsluice in Gorinchem is a fan sluice

• Control lock
• Floodgate
• Gatehouse (waterworks) – An (elaborate) structure to house a sluice gate
• Lock
• Rhyne
• Zijlstra – A Dutch name referring to one who lives near a sluice
• Van der Sluijs – A Dutch name originating from the Sluice
• Hydraulic engineering
• Canal
• List of canals by country

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book| title=The Maine Scenic Route |author=Crittenden, H. Temple |publisher=McClain Printing |year= 1976}}
• {{cite book| title=The Maine Two-Footers |author=Moody, Linwood W. |publisher=Howell-North |year=1959}}
• {{cite book| title=Ride the Sandy River |author1=Cornwall, L. Peter |author2=Farrell, Jack W. |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Pacific Fast Mail |year=1973}}

{{commons category|Sluices}}

{{Wiktionary}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140306131949/http://www.d19.co.uk/details.php?image_id=51 Soar Valley Sluice Gates]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20220610222519/http://www.deltawerken.com/Philips-Dam/334.html Salt/Fresh water separating Sluice Complex (Part of DeltaWorks)]

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Category:Canals

Category:Hydraulic engineering

Category:Water transport infrastructure

Category:Dutch words and phrases