Topology Optimization Of Hydraulic Steel Arch Gate

With the rapid developments of hydropower and the technique of industrial manufacture, the size of a hydraulic steel gate becomes larger and the shape more novel. In huge hydraulic engineering, steel arch gates (SAGs) are commonly used as main gate type to control flood discharge for their advantages, e.g., larger closed orifice area, smaller height of the gate pier, better fluent condition, easier on-off operation and fewer embedded parts, as comparing with plate gates. Unfortunately, many accidents on steel arch gates happened due to poor design, such as, instability of the supporting arms in gates—although the gates may have higher safety coefficients. The accidents also imply SAGs designed according to the traditional design method are unsafe, costly and out of date. Thus, it is necessary to present a new design method of SAGs.In our country since the middle of the 20th century, intensive studies on the optimal design of hydraulic SAGs, have been done from different levels, e.g., mathematical modeling, optimization methods, and practical engineering application. Till now, few of them involving in the application of structural topology optimization theory in the optimum design are applicable.In this paper, the optimal design of a hydraulic SAG is solved by using the commercial software HyperWorks in which the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) method is the key method for topology optimization. According to practical examples, we give new SAGs, separately. Each new design includes three main parts, i.e., the supporting arms, face plate and its supporting framework. In each design, we check the stiffness, strength and stability of gate, as well. Finally, the effective and applicable designs are obtained.The structural design schemes both of the bi-arm emersed and of the bi-arm submerged SAGs are given in this paper. In each design scheme, three major steps are involved. In the first step, the position, topology and shape of the arms, the topology of the supporting frame of face plate are obtained by topology optimization. Secondly, the new SAG is integrated by using the obtained components. Finally, size optimization of the new gate is performed on considering the strength, stiffness and stability constraints. The detailed sizes of the components are determined for manufacture. Compared with the traditional design, the new SAGs are about 30% lighter but much higher of strength, stiffness and stability. It is known that lighter gates are easier for manufacture and operation, which is important for application.