Intake structure
An inlet structure is used to withdraw larger amounts of water from surface waters. From the intake structure, the water is passed on in appropriately dimensioned channels, tunnels or pipes.
Inlet structures are required, for example, for the cooling water supply of thermal power plants . The inclusion of flowing waters for use in medium and high pressure hydropower plants or for transfer to a reservoir is also referred to as an inlet structure. In inlet structures, rakes and, depending on the purpose of the water extraction, sieving machines are installed to separate flotsam, fish, suspended matter and impurities.
The pumping station for lifting the wastewater with the subsequent rake of a sewage treatment plant is also known as an inlet structure.
The term “inlet structure” has the same meaning, whereby the “inlet structure” focuses more on the active control of the system and the “inlet structure” more passively allowing a retention area to fill up, for example.
An example of an intake structure is the Langenzersdorf intake structure .