COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF STEEL GATES FOR HYDRO ELECTRIC PROJECTS

Abstract

The gates are indespensable for any hydro electric scheme. In hydro electric projects, the gates are used to control the flow of water. There are various types of gates,which are .provided for this purpose. Out of these, the fixed wheel vertical lift gates are most commonly used. The design process of gate is time consuming and involves lot of trials & tedious calculations. It will be difficult for a designer to do all such calculations without the help of computers. With the use of computers and software package, the design of a gate can be completed expeditiously. For COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF FIXED WHEEL VERTICAL LIFT GATE, a software package has been developed in FORTRAN language and executed on HP-9000. A seperate software package hat also been written, for computer aided drafting of gate,in FORTI.Ats language and executed on DEC-2050 . For plotting the drawing by drafting software, the data file is generated by design package. The brief description of the design package is given in the lines to follow; The package designs the main components of gate conforming to IS: 4622-1978. The data, required for the design of gate, are fed to the program interactively. The standard steel sections, as per IS specifications, are used for the design of structural components of gate. The package is generalised for crest gates & sluice gates and for any dimension of single leaf vertical lift gate. (iv) The permissible stresses are calculated on the basis of yield point strength & ultimate tensile strength of materials, used for the fabrication of gate components with due consideration to operating conditions of gate. For the design of gate components, the effects of ice, wave and earthquake forces, 'wherever applicable, are also considered in addition to normal water pressures. In case of sluice gates, the gates will not be subjected to ice pressures, as ice pressures, if applicable, will be borne by the breast wall of gate.