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

http://www.betrisey.ch/epointe.html

Subject: what is it?
From: (rick fetters)
Date: 07/08/03 07:05 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id:

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

It looks like the needle valve in the float chamber of a carburetor so I
suspect it performed the same function in a restricting valve in a pipeline.
The deformation will have taken place primarily in the seating area below the
tip where the fluid velocity is highest. Bernoulli would have us believe the
pressure falls as the velocity increases so I suspect that at high flow rates
the fluid was cavitating there leading to the interesting shapes worn into the
metal.


Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)
I'm not at all sure why women like men. We're argumentative, childish,
unsociable and extremely unappealing naked. I'm quite grateful they do though.

I think it is the exhaust cone on a water turbine, It's purpose is to reduce
cavitations ?
bill k

(rick fetters) wrote in message . com...
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

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.

(rick fetters) wrote in message . com...
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

http://www.betrisey.ch/epointe.html

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

"rick fetters" wrote in message
om...
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

http://www.betrisey.ch/epointe.html


didn't some once said that water was the universal solvent!

didn't some once said that water was the universal solvent!


The water didn't dissolve the metal. Cavitation erroded it.

Dave

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