Cavitation

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Learn more about the dangers of cavitation at DamFailures.org

"Cavitation damage is initiated by spillway flows over a defect along the flow surface. The defect creates localized negative pressures within the flow which create vapor bubbles. Individual vapor bubbles converge and form larger vapor cavities. When the vapor cavities impact the flow surface they implode and generate large forces which damage the flow surface. Cavitation generally requires long flow durations (weeks or months) to produce significant damage. The potential for cavitation damage to initiate can be predicted with the cavitation index, which is a function of the flow velocity, the pressure along the flow surface and the vapor pressure of water."

Examples

Learn more about the damage that was caused by cavitation at Glen Canyon Dam (DamFailures.org)

Best Practices Resources

Design Standards No. 14: Appurtenant Structures for Dams (Ch. 3: General Spillway Design Considerations), USBR

Hydraulic Design of Spillways (EM 1110-2-1603), USACE

Cavitation in Chutes and Spillways (EM 42), USBR

Trainings

On-Demand Webinar: Intro to Cavitation in Chutes and Spillways

On-Demand Webinar: Designing Spillways to Mitigate Failure Modes

Citations:

Revision ID: 7124
Revision Date: 07/11/2023