Case Study: The Guton Lock

Sam I.

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Case Study: The Guton Lock

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The Guton Lock, equalization

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Abstract

There are three locks for lifting the ship and three other ones for lowering. Each of the six locks has two chambers. This is designed so to facilitate two way transits, thus, reducing traffic (McCartney 16). This therefore required the design of the wall to be done and constructed in a way the withstand horizontal forces from the two sides.

The whole of the Guton Lock system works in three steps. The ship enters the first chamber at the Guton lock which is at the sea level on the Atlantic side. The water tight gates are closed after the ship gets into the first chamber. A valve is then opened to allow water from the second chamber into the first chamber until both chambers the water levels up. Following this equalization of the levels of water, the valve is the closed and the gate between the first and second chamber is opened for the ship to move to the second chamber (Sherman 35).

The first operation is repeated between the second and third lock to move the ship into the third lock which raise the ship to the Guton Lake water level. After closing of the final valve and opening of the final gate, the ship will have been raised up to 85ft to the Pacific Ocean water level. The forces that act on the first lock on the pacific side are majorly from the water in the Pacific Ocean that exerts pressure on the first gate. In the subsequent locks, forces act from both sides of the gates due to the water that is held inside the chambers.

Introduction
Working of the Guton Locks
Key Design Parameters
Movement of water to the Chambers
The Gate Design Parameters
The overall effect of the Design Forces on the Component
Conclusion

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[...] The forces that act on the first lock on the pacific side are majorly from the water in the Pacific Ocean that exerts pressure on the first gate. In the subsequent locks, forces act from both sides of the gates due to the water that is held inside the chambers. Key Design Parameters The Key factor in the design of the Guton lock was the water. The lifting of the ships in the lock to the level of the Guton Lake is done by water (Ulrich 9). The water in the lock lifts the ship up to 85feet and floats the ship across the divide. [...]

[...] This is designed so to facilitate two way transits, thus, reducing traffic (McCartney 16). This therefore required the design of the wall to be done and constructed in a way the withstand horizontal forces from the two sides. The whole of the Guton Lock system works in three steps. The ship enters the first chamber at the Guton lock which is at the sea level on the Atlantic side. The water tight gates are closed after the ship gets into the first chamber. [...]

[...] This weight was also a design parameter that needed to be considered in the design of the lock. The height to which the ships were to be lifted was also another important design parameter to be taken into consideration by the constructor and engineers of the Guton Lock of the Panama Canal. The lock lifts ships up to 80 feet or about 25.4 meters above sea level. This therefore meant that the side walls of the locks were to be constructed up to or near that height to facilitate the lifting. [...]

[...] Movement of water to the Chambers The Guton Lock does not use any kind of pump to fill the chambers with water. This therefore required the lock to be designed in a way that allow for the use of the force of gravity to move water into the chamber and to release the water to allow for lowering of ships after they have been floated to the required side. The Guton Lock has giant tunnels that run within center and the side walls of the lock. [...]

[...] The wall does not have uniform thickness from the base upwards. Instead it is tapered. This is due to the fact that pressure exerted at the bottom of the wall is more than the pressure exerted at the top since pressure exerted by a liquid in a container is directly proportional to height (Sherman, 30). Pressure= Density x Height x Gravitational Constant Since the density of the water in the chamber is uniform, the exerted pressure therefore depended on the height as gravitational pull is also constants. [...]

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