It is easy to be critical of the Government, but the US has made some amazing accomplishments, from space to infrastructure. The people of the US should be proud of their accomplishments.
The spillway tunnels at both Blue Mesa Dam and Lake Mead's Hoover Dam were also retrofitted with aeration slots (or "air slots") as a direct result of the successful addition of this feature to the spillway tunnels seen here.
Interesting about them not knowing about the "air slot". Every designer of a seaplane could have told them what the solution was even back when they were initially designing the spillways. If you look at the hull of every seaplane from the Spruce Goose, to the Martin Mars, to the Grumman Goose, and to the CL-415 Water Bombers, every single one has what is called a “step” in the hull. Half way back or so on the hull, the hull takes a step up so that it is not continuously in contact with the water all the way back to the tail. As the water rushes over the hull during takeoff, this step is designed to break the surface contact between the hull and the water. It allows air to help break the contact between the water and the hull so that it can take off. If it didn’t, the hull would stay stuck to the water and as it lifted off, there would be cavitation which could literally suck parts of the hull off of the plane. This is exactly what is happening in the spillway tunnel. Before, as the water flowed down, as was pointed out, the cavitation caused parts of the concrete and walls to be sucked off and pushed down stream. Now there is a “step” or “air slot” in the tunnel which breaks the surface contact and prevents cavitation from happening later on down the tunnel. A simple solution which is known to all seaplane designers going back to the 1920s.
cavitation damage and drag due to flow separation are to completely different topics, which actualy have not a lot in common. The step on a seaplane hull helps with clean seperation of the waterstream, which reduces the drag. The air slots in the spillway help to spread many tiny air bubbles in the stream to make the fluid compressible and thereby dampen the shocks of collapsing cavitation bubbles.
@@LeoTsinajinnie4eaglevideo I was a pipefitters apprentice at US Steel coke battery in Bham. My name and everybody else's was Harold. Awesome to see the magnitude of such a project. I would have loved to have seen this.
I know this is 5 years old, but for everyone new watching this and reading the comments... Part 1 of the series explains the massive late (May) snowfall in the watershed, then immediate warming creating higher volumes of melt water in the whole Colorado drainage. Volumes literally so high none of their (B. of Reclamation) flow modelling (working from snow pack measurements and gaging stations) could keep up. They were totally caught by surprise. The reservoir took 20 years to fill, and they try to keep it relatively full at the start of summer to generate power for summer demand in the SW (A/C). This is all part of the back story in the book "The Emerald Mile". A good read about a speed run through the Grand Canyon in a dory during this record level of water release through the dam.
Glen Canyon, Oroville, Teton, ancient Marib, St. Francis, Johnstown ect. Sometimes heroic engineering efforts prevent (or maybe just delay) catastrophe, sometimes not. Modern infrastructure has become very dependent on electronic controls & communication enabled by a fragile overloaded grid. Sure, we think we have backups but a cascading series of events may uncover some “fracture critical” pieces of infrastructure that were thought to be impervious to damage. (Fukushima backup diesel generators at sea level for instance) I have utmost respect for engineering minds but it seems there is always a part of their plans that assumes “that shouldn’t happen” and the plan is built around that idea. Over time, management & accountants determine that what shouldn’t happen, can NOT happen. Then the Black Swan shows up. The next pandemic, or maybe the continuation of this one, could disable enough of the population to the point this heroic fix couldn’t happen. Another 83-84 event, or worse, from Mother Nature will no doubt occur eventually. If your phone, computer, car, maybe even your light switches don’t work, could we pull off a similar engineering save. “Models” are useful tools but get relied on too heavily. Had Glen Canyon dam failed in this case, what would have happened with Lake Mead & Hoover Dam?
My hat is off to these magnificent SOB's! Where would we be without people like them? They are the ones who actually make this shit happen, not the four-eyed, snotty nosed desk jockeys with pocket protectors! They are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, well.
It is easy to be critical of the Government, but the US has made some amazing accomplishments, from space to infrastructure. The people of the US should be proud of their accomplishments.
space?? awww gamon
Handel's Water Music - how appropriate! Nice one.
This production looks like the kind of government movies we'd see in school in the 1950's and early 60's.
I've been to this dam, but never knew about the engineering problem it experienced. That is a rather clever solution.
The spillway tunnels at both Blue Mesa Dam and Lake Mead's Hoover Dam were also retrofitted with aeration slots (or "air slots") as a direct result of the successful addition of this feature to the spillway tunnels seen here.
Things like this make me really love the American Southwest, my homeland!
Amen the s.west...
I've only read about this. Never seen it. Always wanted to. Thanks for uploading the video.
That was freakin awesome !
Interesting about them not knowing about the "air slot". Every designer of a seaplane could have told them what the solution was even back when they were initially designing the spillways.
If you look at the hull of every seaplane from the Spruce Goose, to the Martin Mars, to the Grumman Goose, and to the CL-415 Water Bombers, every single one has what is called a “step” in the hull. Half way back or so on the hull, the hull takes a step up so that it is not continuously in contact with the water all the way back to the tail. As the water rushes over the hull during takeoff, this step is designed to break the surface contact between the hull and the water. It allows air to help break the contact between the water and the hull so that it can take off. If it didn’t, the hull would stay stuck to the water and as it lifted off, there would be cavitation which could literally suck parts of the hull off of the plane.
This is exactly what is happening in the spillway tunnel. Before, as the water flowed down, as was pointed out, the cavitation caused parts of the concrete and walls to be sucked off and pushed down stream. Now there is a “step” or “air slot” in the tunnel which breaks the surface contact and prevents cavitation from happening later on down the tunnel.
A simple solution which is known to all seaplane designers going back to the 1920s.
cavitation damage and drag due to flow separation are to completely different topics, which actualy have not a lot in common. The step on a seaplane hull helps with clean seperation of the waterstream, which reduces the drag. The air slots in the spillway help to spread many tiny air bubbles in the stream to make the fluid compressible and thereby dampen the shocks of collapsing cavitation bubbles.
Fascinating. Thanks for uploading this.
That would be one halicious water slide!
+Dale Teille Especially when you would hit the air slot.
I was a member of the Carpenters Union LU 1100 out of Flagstaff, AZ.. I worked on the Air Slots projects in '84
@@LeoTsinajinnie4eaglevideo I was a pipefitters apprentice at US Steel coke battery in Bham. My name and everybody else's was Harold. Awesome to see the magnitude of such a project. I would have loved to have seen this.
Impressive!
Pretty dammed awesome.
live a little, learn a lot.............................
Awesome resource. Thank you. Got any more stuff like this?
Cost of the repair?...any idea ?...
How much more cool to let a free-flowing river continue to carve its way through the bedrock.
this might be a dumb ? but if the outlet tubes were used to help the spillways, then why would they not open the outlet tubes more often?
Water is power and power is money and money is power and power is money which can also be used to buy water
Opening the outlet tubes shuts down the power station. Cheers from Seattle
I know this is 5 years old, but for everyone new watching this and reading the comments... Part 1 of the series explains the massive late (May) snowfall in the watershed, then immediate warming creating higher volumes of melt water in the whole Colorado drainage. Volumes literally so high none of their (B. of Reclamation) flow modelling (working from snow pack measurements and gaging stations) could keep up. They were totally caught by surprise. The reservoir took 20 years to fill, and they try to keep it relatively full at the start of summer to generate power for summer demand in the SW (A/C). This is all part of the back story in the book "The Emerald Mile". A good read about a speed run through the Grand Canyon in a dory during this record level of water release through the dam.
Why can't i play this on my iPad or Wii?
I agree.
got schooled here about water control .......
No need for spillways these past years, as Mother Nature has taken care of that with an ongoing drought.
Spoken too soon.
couldnt eat those words if you tried lol, have to chop em up put them in the freezer, you dbe having them for breaky lunch and dinner for a while lol
Although i dont think we will need lake Mead's spillways in near future...
Glen Canyon, Oroville, Teton, ancient Marib, St. Francis, Johnstown ect. Sometimes heroic engineering efforts prevent (or maybe just delay) catastrophe, sometimes not. Modern infrastructure has become very dependent on electronic controls & communication enabled by a fragile overloaded grid. Sure, we think we have backups but a cascading series of events may uncover some “fracture critical” pieces of infrastructure that were thought to be impervious to damage. (Fukushima backup diesel generators at sea level for instance) I have utmost respect for engineering minds but it seems there is always a part of their plans that assumes “that shouldn’t happen” and the plan is built around that idea. Over time, management & accountants determine that what shouldn’t happen, can NOT happen. Then the Black Swan shows up.
The next pandemic, or maybe the continuation of this one, could disable enough of the population to the point this heroic fix couldn’t happen. Another 83-84 event, or worse, from Mother Nature will no doubt occur eventually. If your phone, computer, car, maybe even your light switches don’t work, could we pull off a similar engineering save. “Models” are useful tools but get relied on too heavily. Had Glen Canyon dam failed in this case, what would have happened with Lake Mead & Hoover Dam?
Well... did Powell pay for it......
Least they are fixing the dam.
they think they fixed it. just give it time and wear and tear is just around the corner. you can't stop water or mother nature.
My hat is off to these magnificent SOB's! Where would we be without people like them? They are the ones who actually make this shit happen, not the four-eyed, snotty nosed desk jockeys with pocket protectors! They are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, well.
One day the luck is going to run out. Then the powers that be will be asked when will man go back to living within the limits set by our planet
It's funny (not that funny) cause at the time they're just like< "lets ramp it up to 20K!" in one throttle. Bye bye beaches!
What does that even mean. What a vapid comment.
funny how though hundreds of people were probably involved in fixing this...nobody actually involved comments on these video's...strange isn't it?
s smith not true, there is a commenter from Arizona who states they worked on this project in 84
Well ...me?...I live in the creek....