ASDSO Dam Safety Toolbox

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

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Association of State Dam Safety Officials, 2019



The course is intended to give the participants an understanding of cavitation on chutes and spillways. The course will be introduced with a video of a case study that illustrates some of the fundamentals of cavitation and an explanation of why cavitation causes damage. Following the video, a PowerPoint presentation will discuss the beneficial effects of aeration on preventing damage due to cavitation. The participants will be guided to an Excel program that reproduces all the Fortran programs given in EM 42. The spreadsheet can be used to analyze chutes and spillways for their hydraulic and cavitation performance, design aerators, determine the best vertical alignment to minimize cavitation inception, and analyze the cavitation damage potential of historic data.

Key Take-aways:

  • Understanding of cavitation and how it is formed.
  • Understanding of the difference between cavitation and cavitation damage.
  • Understanding of dam failure investigations and forensic reporting.
  • Beneficial effects of aeration on preventing cavitation damage.
  • Required surface tolerance to prevent damage with and without aeration.
  • Availability of tools to study cavitation on chutes and spillways.


Access Training Here

Speaker(s): Henry T. Falvey


Revision ID: 2304
Revision Date: 08/19/2022