From the Steep Waterway to the Golden Waterway - Record the Scientific Research Achievements of the Three Gorges Ship Lock Cascade Navigation Series

The Three Gorges Water Control Project. Lin Hai PhotographyIn July, the Three Gorges Dam is often shrouded in clouds

The Three Gorges Water Control Project. Lin Hai Photography

In July, the Three Gorges Dam is often shrouded in clouds. On a clear day, the Three Gorges ship lock on the left side of the dam opens and closes. The Boat lift is linked up and down. Large ships climb "stairs" and small ships take "elevators". It is orderly and busy.

In 2023, the navigation of the Three Gorges Shiplock celebrated its 20th anniversary, with over 993000 ships passing through the dam, 12.239 million passengers enjoying the grandeur of the Three Gorges Dam, and 1.91 billion tons of cargo flowing smoothly through the Three Gorges... The once roaring river has become calm, and dangers have become a thing of the past, and "the river never sleeps" has become history.

Gaoxia Pinghu Pancai Boat

"In the past 20 years of scientific and technological breakthroughs, a series of original achievements have added a powerful 'safety valve' to the safe, efficient and stable operation of the Three Gorges Gezhouba ultra-high head cascade junction!" Qi Junlin, director of the Three Gorges Navigation Administration, sincerely sighed.

In 2003, the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project began experimental water storage, and the idea of "high gorges leading out of Pinghu" became a reality. The 59 kilometer section of the Three Gorges project has gradually developed into a "two dams, one gorge, one aircraft, and thirteen gates", becoming a crucial link between the Yangtze River trunk line and the upstream.

At this time, the three cascaded waterways formed by the Three Gorges navigation section, including the upper reservoir area section, the rapid flow section between the two dams, and the natural navigation section below the dam, have a continuous maximum drop of 140 meters. Coupled with the unique danger of "four beaches, one bend, and one pass", they are widely recognized as the most complex navigation environment in the world.

There is no experience to follow in the operation of ship locks. Faced with many challenges such as joint control of multiple lock operations, navigation scheduling control, and navigation guarantee, how can we solve them?

The Three Gorges Navigation Administration, in collaboration with more than 10 research institutes and innovative enterprises in the transportation industry, has formed a team of nearly 100 people to carry out research on the "Key Technologies and Applications of Three Gorges Gezhouba Cascade Navigation Operation" project, empowering scientific and technological innovation for operation, maintenance, and protection.

In 2019, numerous original and new scientific research achievements emerged, and the "four major systems" of navigation operation theory and methods, automatic control and intelligent scheduling technology, service equipment evaluation and rapid maintenance, and navigation safety guarantee technology were constructed, which solved the problems of standardization of ship navigation behavior, rapid gate crossing, and intelligent navigation scheduling. The navigation buildings of the Three Gorges and Gezhouba have achieved a butterfly transformation from good use to good use and from good management to good management.

Digging Potential, Improving Efficiency, and Building Roads

With the rise of water and the decrease of water, ships passing through the lock can achieve the goal of "going up and down stairs". This requires precise filling, discharging, opening, and closing of the 5-level double track locks in the Three Gorges Dam and the three single-level locks in the Gezhouba Dam. There is a problem with one lock chamber, and one line will be paralyzed.

Every data of the Three Gorges Shiplock Control System is accurately calculated. A seemingly simple formula, from conception to application, takes many years! "Duan Bo, deputy chief engineer of the Mechanical and Electrical Institute of Yangtze River Survey, Planning, Design and Research Co., Ltd., who participated in the research on" navigation operation theory and methods, sighed.

The design of the Three Gorges Shiplock is based on a fleet dominated operating environment, with a planned throughput of 100 million tons by 2030. "Duan Bo told reporters that according to the design standards, a lock chamber can pass 6 to 7 fleets and enter the lock in about 10 minutes. But now the waterway has changed to "everyone goes with water", and ships passing through the lock have become mainly single ships. The distance between entering the lock has been widened, and the initial time for entering the lock was as high as 1 hour.

Digging Potential, Improving Efficiency, and Building Roads

The Three Gorges Navigation Management Bureau has developed the "synchronous berthing technology", which utilizes the "single ship synchronous entry" organization method to achieve the "bundling" of ships in the same lock and row, like a fleet, entering and exiting the lock, and moving berths between the lock chambers. The single line of the Three Gorges ship lock has operated 7 to 9 locks per day and night in the initial stage, and increased to 16 to 17 locks per day and night; Optimize the operation control parameters of ship lock valves, achieve optimal operation control of two dam ship locks, and maximize the utilization of lock chamber area and water depth; The scientific research exploration of implementing "Gezhouba Three Locks in One" and "Ship Lock Electromechanical Water Integration"

At present, the average Deadweight tonnage of Gezhouba Dam and the Three Gorges Shiplock in one time actually reaches 17700 tons, far higher than the design capacity of 10200 tons; The draft control standard for ships passing through the Three Gorges Dam has been increased from 3.3 meters to 4.3 meters; The average unit energy consumption of ships passing through the lock has decreased from 7.6 kilograms per thousand ton kilometers before water storage to 1.9 kilograms per thousand ton kilometers

Reinnovation of maintenance technology

As a fortress of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Shiplock has to be suspended for one day every day of maintenance, which means that about 70 ships and 280000 tons of cargo are obstructed in navigation.

In order to reduce suspension, it is urgent to develop a "synchronized lifting of the miter gate". The key to the overhaul of the ship lock is the "miter gate". It needs to lift the door body, which is the size of two Basketball court and weighs 900 tons, then check the wear, replace the parts, and then fall back safely.

There are 36 such "giants" at Liangba Shiplock, with hundreds of maintenance procedures alone. Li Ran, a senior engineer at the Three Gorges Navigation Management Bureau, told reporters: "To lift one jack, 40 experienced technicians need to simultaneously operate 8 jacks, taking a day. If the deviation exceeds 1mm, it can cause damage to the door body, and in severe cases, it can cause an overturning accident

Faced with the challenge, the R&D team proposed to use four hydraulic jacks to achieve automatic high-precision lifting, with a deviation requirement of no more than 0.5mm.

As the maintenance date approaches, the R&D personnel who refuse to give up are only sleeping three or four hours a day, stationed on the testing ground for 22 consecutive days, breaking through key core technologies. In the end, the R&D personnel completed the development of the lifting system before the maintenance and successfully tested it in one fell swoop.

With this unique technology, high-risk tasks that originally required 40 people to complete day and night can be completed with just one press of a button and six people in one hour. That year, the downtime for maintenance was reduced from more than 100 days to 50 days, "Li Ran said. Based on this, the research and development team developed a rapid maintenance system mainly consisting of large-scale series of maintenance equipment, processes, and methods. The downtime for ship lock maintenance was reduced from more than 50 days to 20-30 days.

The trial opening of the Three Gorges Boat lift in September 2016 is another world best. During operation, it is necessary to lift a total weight of 15500 tons, equivalent to 200000 people, and be in a 30 meter jump water level, which poses a safety hazard.

In order to "nip the hidden danger in the cradle", scientific researchers have "customized" a set of ship safety detection system, which can comprehensively detect the speed, draft and position of the ship passing through, and solve the problem of "acclimatization" of Boat lift.

Nowadays, ships "take the elevator" to pass the dam, which has been shortened from 300 minutes to 50 minutes, and the erected coins remain motionless... (Reporter He Liang, Correspondent Liu Min)

Source: Science and Technology Daily

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