Design of a Lever Hydroelectric Power Plant – in the Structural Aspect with a Strength Analysis of the Selected Segment

This article presents examples of the use of complex sheet metal in everyday life and the course of modeling a sheet bent simultaneously in two planes.The element selected to describe the modelling process is a fragment of the side wall of a lever hydroelectric power plant that operates on the Bystrzyca River in Lublin.The shape of the element is conditioned by the need to achieve a gentle change in the cross-section of the water stream during the flow between the steering system and the outflow area.The segment through which the water flows is clearly lower and wider than the other modules of the power plant, which is due to the average water level in the Bystrzyca River.Such a shape is necessary because the inflow and outflow parts of the power plant must be submerged under water all the time.This is due to the principle of operation of the power plant, which works by obtaining a vacuum created by pumping air from the inside.The article also presents the results of the strength analysis, which was performed for the segment exposed to the highest loads.The analysis and the entire design were performed in Autodesk Inventor, and the results obtained were as expected and even in the most critical places no values were reached that would require changes to the design.