A New Construction Method for a Lightweight Submerged Radial Gate

A new design method in hydraulic engineering is presented for the construction of a lightweight submerged radial gate (SRG) with two vertical arms. In the analysis, the structure is decomposed into several main components and each component is shaped using a topology optimization approach. In particular, a SRG can be divided into three major parts: the water-retaining face plate, the support frame, and the arms. The whole design process for the SRG generally includes five steps: (1) the optimal position of arms is determined in terms of avoiding bending moment of arm adjacent to the support frame; (2) using the topology optimization method, the shape of each arm is determined subject to the symmetry condition with respect to the whole structure; (3) a frame made of horizontal and vertical ribs is constructed to support the face plate; (4) the new radial gate is assembled based on these optimized components, e.g., two arms, the face plate and its support frame; and (5) the sizes of these components are verified using size optimization by considering the stiffness and strength of the new structure under a critical loading condition. To show the validity of the method, a traditional SRG in a real project is adopted as an example and is redesigned using the present method. The evaluation result shows that the new structure is about 27% lighter than the original. At the same time, the mechanical properties of the SRG are significantly improved.