Finite element code for modal analysis on navigation locks considering fluid structure interaction

Resumo

Navigation locks are classified as hydraulic structures inside the engineering domain and represent huge
importance for the waterways system, once they turn the waterbodies navigable by enabling the ships to overcome
unevenness. Through a mechanical point of view, this type of structure reunites two distinct types of materials: one
solid, the other fluid. From the contact between those two fields, the fluid-structure interaction arises, characterized
by pressure and deformation compatibility, due to dynamic coupling. Whether before the variety of the studied cases
were limited by extensive analytical solutions and simplified geometry, at the last fifty years, due to the evolution
of numerical methods, there was an advancement on the diversity of possible cases to be assessed over conditions
closer to the reality concerning the geometry. Therefore, the present paper proposes the study of bidimensional
cases of reinforced concrete navigation locks based on a unique MATLAB finite element method code. The cases
will be submitted to modal analysis and their results will be validated on the ANSYS software. Those analyses
will allow the identification of intervenient parameters on the structure behavior. From the outcomes interpretation,
solutions will be formulated towards a design of those structures more consistent and less vulnerable to this type of
solicitation.