• A chute spillway, variously called as open channel or trough spillway, is one whose discharge is conveyed from the reservoir to the downstream river level through an open channel, placed either along a dam abutment or through a saddle (Figure 9). The  control structure for the chute spillway need not necessarily be an overflow crest, and may be of the side-channel type (discussed in Section 4.9.4), as has been shown in Figure 10. However, the name is most often applied when the spillway control is placed normal or nearly normal to the axis of the open channel, and where the streamlines of flow both above and below the control crest follow in the direction of the axis. 

• Generally, the chute spillway has been mostly used in conjunction with embankment dams, like the Tehri dam, for example. Chute spillways are simple to design and construct and have been constructed successfully on all types of foundation materials, ranging from solid rock to soft clay. 

• Chute spillways ordinarily consist of an entrance channel, a control structure, a discharge channel, a terminal structure, and an outlet channel. Often, the axis of the entrance channel or that of the discharge channel must be curved to fit the topography. For further details, one may refer to the Bureau of Indian Standards Code IS: 5186- 1994 “Design of chute and side channel spillways-criteria”.

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