China's Jinsha River Xiluodu Hydropower Station, the second largest in the country, has received global recognition after the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) awarded the station as a FIDIC Outstanding Project of the Year last year.
The station which straddles between Yongshan County of Yunnan Province and Leibo County of Sichuan Province in southwest China was the only hydroelectric project among the 21 award-winners of the year 2016.
Liao Jianxin, an engineering director with the project's contractor, China Three Gorges Corporation, said the intelligent management system of the dam won the approval of the judging team.
"The digital dam, in a nutshell, consists of the thermometer, strain gauge and other detecting equipment in the concrete of the dam. The whole construction process was monitored by these equipment, which gives a real-time account of the stress state and condition of the dam for the convenience of adjustment," said Liao.
One of the strengths of the smart system is that it helps prevent thermal cracking, a common thermal effect on concrete, in the dam.
"The 6.8 million cubic meters of concrete in the dam has no thermal cracking. As far as we know, no other dam in the world can avoid such cracking," said Liao.
Built in the spirit of sustainable development, the station makes maximum use of the mountains on both sides of the river to house its workshops, underground power stations and transportation tunnels.
A massive hydraulic generator set highlights the superior coordination of various different sectors of the station, said director Ran Yichuan, who demonstrated the smooth operational quality of the generator by balancing a coin upright on the ground.
"The rotating part of the hydraulic generator set has a weight of over 2,000 tons. The stability of such a heavy rotating unit can be demonstrated in this experiment: As you can see, the small coin is only five meters above the rotating part, and it stands perfectly still. So the hydraulic generator set was very well installed. In more professional terms, the vibration part and throw are exquisite," said Ran.
With 18 large generators and a total capacity of 13.86 gigawatts, the Xiluodu station is the world's third-largest project behind the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei Province and Brazil's Itaipu hydroelectric dam.
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