At this site you will find a picture of a focault pendulum clock that has a cone shaped piece of metal from a hydroelectric generating station. nThe metal is 'said' to be really hard, but it has been abraded/contorted into a very interesting shape. The question is....what part is it, what was it's function? It is interesting to note that the very tip shows little deformation/abrasion; could it be the 'end' instead of the 'point' of an apparatus in the flow of water? rick
I think it is the exhaust cone on a water turbine, It's purpose is to reduce cavitations ? bill k
Neat picture... the deformation is almost certainly due to cavitation. Cavitation damage is like having a lot of little explosions at the surface of the part.
Tim.
I've got a book on cavitation and cavitational wear, that's definitely cavitational damage. My off the cuff guess would be that it was part of the nozzle assembly on the turbine, I've seen drawings of similar cones hooked to the turbine governers, they move axially in and out of the nozzle to throttle the water flow. It's amazing what moving water can do to metal, isn't it?
Stan
didn't some once said that water was the universal solvent!
What size particles are you talking about in the errosion process? By that I mean what would be the average particle size of the metal as it leaves the surface of the cone? rick
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