Please choose your delivery country and your customer group
A new steel lined pressure shaft and a surge tank is constructed for the existing Kaunertal high head hydropower plant. The inclined shaft with a diameter of 4.3 m is approx. 1,430 m long and is designed for a pressure head of 100 bar. The steel lining is fully embedded and installed inside the precast concrete segmental lining, which was earlier erected with the tunnel boring progress. Steel design criteria take into account that the internal pressure is shared between the pipe steel and the rock mass according to the stiffness ratio of lining and rock mass. In addition to the demanding design criteria, safety considerations were taken into account, which triggered the development of purpose tailored steel material to be used in the Project. An overview on the Project, which is implemented in the years 2012 to 2015 and the design criteria for the steel lined shaft are presented in the paper.