抄録
This paper describes a serious failure of 37-ton Tainter gate in Japan and presents its failure re-investigation, where the major characteristics of static structural strength and self-excited vibration are addressed with the aid of current FEM high technologies and our theoretical calculations developed for the 87-ton Tainter-gate failure at Folsom dam in California. The Tainter-gate failure occurred on July 2nd 1967 at W Dam, constructed at the upstream of Yura River in Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. The failure investigation at that time concluded that the radial strut structure was not high enough in strength for the hydrostatic load to induce the serious in-ward buckling failure of the main radial struts. In the present study, FEM simulations were made to address that the gate failure could not take place, caused only by the static hydraulic load. Subsequently, the theoretical calculations developed for the Folsom Tainter-gate failure was incorporated into FEM simulations to address that W gate also induced the coupled-mode violent self-excited vibration at its incipient failure, while the gate was being closed at small gate openings, closely similar as on the Folsom gate failure.
