Monitoring of Elastic Deformations of the Hydraulic Structure Gabcíkovo

Abstract

The settlement and its calculations and monitoring are among the main factors influencing the structure and operability of hydraulic structures. Our paper focuses on the hydraulic structure Gabcíkovo which consists of the hydropower plant with an installed capacity of 720 MW and two navigation locks to ensure international ship transportation. Conventional geodetic methods of classical or very precise leveling with state-of-the-art measuring instruments are currently used to monitor deformations on navigation locks of hydraulic structure Gabcíkovo. In their subsoil, there are gravelly sediments to a depth of about 400 m. Under the gravel sediments, there are Neogene clays and silts. From the beginning of construction, deformations are measured on all structures using special tachymetric devices to monitor the elastic displacements. The obtained measured values are then processed in time dependences and compared with the limit values. During the current almost 30-year operation of the navigation locks, filling and emptying cycles, loading and unloading of the subsoil can be counted in the tens of thousands. The impact of the long-term operation, but especially the current innovation and modernization of navigation locks, aimed at increasing the safety and intensity of transport brings new knowledge and experiences. During the implementation of required improvement related to this project, the right navigation lock is empty for more than a year. The created technical conditions made it possible to monitor the influence of long-term unloading on the subsoil on the vertical displacements in detail. This unusual load condition is a motivation to present the results of measurements in the presented paper.