An integrated optimization process for the design of rising sector gates

Many small dams have recently been constructed on several major rivers in the Republic of Korea to utilize water resources and control water flows. One such water body is the Gangjeong reservoir in the Nakdong river. A rising sector gate was mounted at this reservoir and finite element analysis confirmed the empirical design of the gate to be safe with minor modifications. However, the positioning of the horizontal girders is critical in the design of a gate, and must be determined by a trial-and-error process. To find the optimal solution for the positions and thicknesses of horizontal girders in a rising sector gate, this paper proposes a new procedure using the commercial optimization package, PIAnO, as well as the Pro-Engineer, Hypermesh and Abaqus programs. In addition, an artificially continuous model of objective function was proposed, to achieve optimization with reduced computing time.