Abstract: As an energy dissipator which is suitable for large flood discharge structures,flaring gate pier has been applied in many water conservancy and hydropower projects in recent years. In order to summarize and analyze its technical development and research progress,this paper first reviews and summarizes the energy dissipation technology and its shape development process of flaring gate pier,the shape layout characteristics of flaring gate pier are then summarized as well as the research results of dam surface shape,step surface shape,stilling basin shape and related hydraulic characteristics used in combination with flaring gate pier. Finally,the related problems to be studied in the application of energy dissipation technology with flaring gate pier are proposed.