Cavitation erosion in hydraulic machinery, such as in turbines and pumps, often leads to significant reduction of the service life of the affected components, with serious consequences for their maintenance costs and operation efficiency. In this study, the potential contribution of acoustic emission (AE) measurements to the assessment of cavitation damage is evaluated from experiments in a cavitation tunnel. Stainless steel samples were exposed to cavitation and damage was characterized from pitting tests carried out on mirror-polished samples. The pits were measured using an optical profilometer and cavitation damage was characterized by pit diameter distribution. In parallel, AE time signal was measured directly from behind the samples. A dedicated signal-processing technique was developed in order to identify each burst in the AE signal and determine its amplitude. The AE amplitude distribution compares well with PVDF and pressure sensor measurements from literature. It is concluded that AE signal analysis can be used to monitor the formation of pits without visual examination of the damaged surface. This provides a basis for possible future applications of nonintrusive cavitation erosion monitoring in hydraulic machines, provided the findings remain true in a more complex environment.

Cavitation erosion is a concern for most hydro machine operation. An especially damaging type of cavitation is the cloud cavitation. This type has a growth-collapse cycle in which a group of vapor bubbles grows together in a low-pressure region, to collapse almost simultaneously when the pressure recovers. Measuring the frequency of these collapse events is possible by acoustic emission (AE), as demonstrated in this study, in which a cavitation tunnel is utilized to create cloud cavitation on a sample surface. These samples were fitted with AE sensors, and the initially high frequency AE signal was demodulated to detect the relatively low frequency cloud cavitation shedding. When the cavitation number is increased, AE detects the changes in this frequency correctly, confirmed by comparing the results to video analysis and to simulations by other authors. Additionally, the frequency increases when cavitation erosion progresses, thus it provides means to track the erosion stage. The presented method can be used in detecting the transition from cloud to sheet cavitation when the cavitation number is increased, and in tracking erosion evolution in the cavitation tunnel. The method could probably be extended to hydro machine monitoring, as this type of cloud cavitation is common in hydrofoils.

A continuously recording exposure meter has been developed for radio-frequency (RF) hazard measurements in FM/TV broadcasting towers for the frequency range 47-790 MHz. The instrument consists of an electrically-small dipole, loop probes and recording electronics. The dipole and loop are attached to the safety helmet; their distance from the head is approximately 7 cm. The dipole and loop respond to the tangential E field and radial H field, respectively. The error due to body proximity and one-dimensionality is 1 to 2 dB at 100 MHz and 2 to 3 dB at 200 MHz (for average power density measurements) if the probes move continuously and the measurement period is sufficiently long. Measurements in Finnish FM/TV towers showed that the average power density inside the tower increases with increasing power and decreasing antenna surface area. The highest levels have been found near UHF and FM antennas. For the FM band (100 MHz) the average H field exposures exceed the new ANSI standard value 10 W/m2, but remain in most cases below 100 W/m2. Local maxima may exceed 300 W/m2.

Cavitation erosion is the most important erosion mechanism in Francis turbine runner blades. For this reason, knowledge of a material's ability to resist cavitation is important in defining how suitable it is for use in a Francis turbine. In this study, three Francis turbine materials were subjected to cavitation erosion in a high-speed cavitation tunnel. One of the materials was a low-alloy steel, and the other two were stainless steels. The cavitation tunnel produced an annular cavitation field on one face of a cylindrical specimen. The test specimens underwent cavitation erosion until the erosion had reached a maximum penetration depth of about 0.5 mm. The material surface profiles were measured at regular intervals to calculate volume and mass loss. These losses were compared to those of several other materials that had undergone the same tests with the same setup and operational parameters. The materials were compared according to their steadystate erosion rates. The steady-state erosion rate represents a material's ability to resist cavitation erosion once cavitation damage has already started to develop. The low-alloy steel eroded four times faster than the two stainless steels. One of the stainless steels tested here (Stainless steel 1) had the lowest erosion rate, along with another previously tested stainless steel. The other stainless steel (Stainless steel 2) had a slightly greater erosion rate than the first, falling into the same class as other lower-grade stainless steels and a nickel aluminum bronze alloy. The results show that in choosing a turbine blade material, stainless steels outperform Manuscript