Rehabilitation of Geesthacht barrage near Hamburg

The Geesthacht barrage near Hamburg dams the water level of the Elbe by up to two meters and was fully commissioned in 1960. It limits the lower Elbe, which is influenced by the tides of the North Sea, and improves the water management conditions of the inland Elbe on the one hand and navigation conditions on the river on the other. The barrage comprises a weir with four flow openings, each 50 meters wide, a fixed overflow sill as well as two fish ladders, a lock channel with a double lock and a vehicle bridge.

More than 10,000 ships pass through the locks every year.

The Elbe is the eighth largest river in Europe by length and catchment area and rises in the Czech Republic.

After more than 60 years in operation and occasional damages, the weir including the stilling basins is to be comprehensively rehabilitated, the piers and stilling basins extended and another bridge added. As a technical-scientific institution, the German Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) is conducting studies on the effects of the rehabilitation work on the deformation of the base structures and the current vehicle bridge for this purpose. With an innovative approach and the combination of various software - including in-house developments - Gruner won the tender for the creation of the three-dimensional finite element model required for this, including the evaluation of the numerical simulations, and subsequently developed an evaluation basis for the planned renovation.

For further simulations and analyses, BAW requires a three-dimensional, coupled hydro-mechanical finite element model (3D FE model). In a first step, Gruner modeled the geometry of the weir fields in a powerful 3D graphics software in close coordination with the client. This information was imported into the FE software using solutions programmed in-house at Gruner. Finally, all relevant construction stages from the creation of the weir to the completion of the renovations were mapped, calculated and evaluated using proprietary scripts.

The Gruner solution offers several advantages over classic manual model creation: By using powerful 3D graphics software, a realistic and adequate geometry could be efficiently both created and visualized, which simplified the coordination with the client. The source-text driven definition of the calculation phases improves the reproducibility and testability of the resulting model. At the same time, the resulting model remains fully usable and customizable for the client without any dependencies on the Gruner specific solutions.

"The individual software packages used are freely available on the market. However, only we offer such a combined solution", says Gruner project manager Konrad Westermann.

This combined solution minimizes the effort and improves the results as well as their explanation to our customers. "For customers, our scripts initially appear like a black box – with the right communication and explanation, they can be quickly seen through. In the process, trust in our solutions and in the results of the studies is created through our openness and transparency," says Westermann. Gruner's special solutions are continuously adapted to the current program world, developed further at the same time and expanded for further challenges.

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