Numerical modeling of Panama Canal locks

Context

Locks enable boats to change elevation while navigating a river or canal. During the ascent and descent phases, large quantities of water are displaced in the shortest possible time. To avoid endangering the integrity of the boat and the lock, the displacement of the surface of water must be a perfect translation.

The Panama Canal is no exception to the rule: three sets of locks, divided into 6 stages, take ships from the level of the Pacific to the level of Lake Gatun, then back to the level of the Atlantic ocean. Each chamber is 33.5 m wide and 320 m long, with a maximum vertical drop of 25.9 m, and requires 101,000 cubic metres of water for filling and emptying.

Objective

The challenge in a lock is to design hydraulic circuits that allow large flows to pass through as equi-distributed as possible. Indeed, an imbalance can have dramatic consequences, causing a boat to collide with the lock’s walls or gates.

OptiFluides’ objective here is to model these hydraulic circuits, enabling us to validate the proper operation of the lock. The numerical model involves different types of flow: free-surface flow at the interface between water, air and the ship’s hull, and loaded flow in the hydraulic distributor.

Simulation and results

Hydraulic CFD models also enable us to resolve the balance of forces applying to the ship, and to check whether there is a risk of collision with the invert, and if so, to propose modifications to guard against it.

OptiFluides therefore carries out 3D hydraulic modelling to validate the design of these locks, as in the case of the Panama Canal here, and to study any solutions that may prove necessary.

Given the stakes involved in this project, hybrid modeling was also used: a physical model of the locks on a scale of 1/30 was produced in the CNR hydraulic laboratory, while OptiFluides worked on the numerical models, validating them against measurements, and extrapolating the model to full scale.