Road toward a standardized lock gate

Abstract

Rijkswaterstaat asks whether and how navigation locks can be standardized and if it could result in cost savings. This graduation work focused on finding how one could standardize one part of the navigation locks, namely the lock gate. Besides, finding an innovative idea for the lock gate was also part of the agenda. This resulted in the design of a concrete modular rolling arc gate. The modular part as a means of standardizing the gate, by making it possible to install the gate at many different sites; the concrete and arc gate parts are the parts where innovation is applied. The most difficult part was to support the gate in the gate recesses in such a way that bending stresses were reduced to a minimum (creating an arch-like structure) without any extra mechanisms, to keep the gate light and thin. This was done by clamping the gate in the recess, which resulted in some contradicting demands. On the one hand, the gate needed to be flexible, so that it would bend enough to clamp in the recess, hence, a thin gate was required. On the other hand, the gate needed to be strong enough to bear the loads, hence, the gate needed to be thicker. The lock gate could not be as thin as required to reach the supports through bending and this concept was concluded technically unfeasible. It is however recommended to investigate the costs and benefits of a concrete modular gate design because this resulted in a relatively easy to build and maintain design (given that the supports had not been a problem).