Lift Gate for Lockport Lock, Illinois Waterway: Hydraulic Model Investigation

Source: https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/ The guard lift gate for the Lockport Lock will be equipped to operate during emergency closure of the lock chamber. This will involve operation under dynamic heads. A 1:24-scale section model of the lock chamber, guard and service gate sills, the guard gate, approach area, and lock chamber was used to study magnitude and frequency of the hydraulic forces acting on the lifting cables and the flow conditions over the gate. Tests indicated that the hydraulic load increased as the exposed gate height increased until the exposed gate height became approximately equal to 60 percent of the pool height. At this point, the hydraulic loads peaked and began to decrease with increasing exposed gate heights. This Hydraulic Model Investigation yielded hydraulic loads less than the calculated hydraulic loads provided by the US Army Engineer District, Rock Island. Although some gate vibrations were indicated, they were random and small compared to the magnitude of the total load.