Purpose
Our customer in the Leisure Industry required us to develop a system for the high-speed opening of a single large door to allow the rapid evacuation of a water storage tank to enable the generation of dynamic wave heights up to 2.2M, every 60 seconds, for the purpose of propelling a leisure boat down a narrow channel.
Problem
To achieve the required wave height a large volume of water has to be released from the storage tank as quickly as possible, this necessitates the use of a large opening in the base of the tank, which in turn requires the use of a large hydraulicly actuated wave door, operating in both the open and close directions at very high speed.
Solution
A prototype hydraulic control manifold, cylinder and door opening mechanism was designed and manufactured. Making use of a regenerative hydraulic circuit and hydraulic accumulator system, with special overrun feature that allowed the door to be decelerated at the end if its travel. The net result being that we could open the door in 0.2-seconds at a speed of 8-metres/second.
Outcome
Our prototype door mechanism showed that it was possible to achieve the required rapid evacuation door opening time. Using the lessons learned a complete hydraulic system was designed and manufactured and supplied for installation in China.
