Analysis of Fluid-Structure Interaction for Development of Korean Inflatable Rubber Dams for Small Hydropower

Inflatable rubber dams are used for controlling flood, impounding water for recreations, preventing beach erosions, diverting water for irrigations, and generating hydropower. They are long, flexible, inflated with air, cylindrical structures on a rigid horizontal foundation such as concrete. The dam is modeled as an elastic shell inflated with air. The mechanical behaviors of the inflated dam model were investigated by using the finite element method. The analysis process such as One Way Coupling Fluid-Structure Interaction consists of two steps. First, the influences of the fluid side were investigated, viz, the shape changes of the inflated rubber dam due to the fluid motions was captured when the height of the dam was 30cm with air pressure 0.01MPa, at which the pressure distributions over the surface of the dam were calculated. And next, the structural deformations were calculated using the pressure distributions. The initial inlet velocity for flow field was set to 0.1m/s. The structural deformation behaviors were investigated. The final research goal is to develop a Korean Inflatable Rubber Dam to be used for generating small hydropower.

소수력 발전용 한국형 공기주입식 고무댐 개발을 위한 유체-구조 연성 해석