Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

The Bureau of Reclamation has a strong need for cavitation resistant materials for use on concrete hydraulic structures, such as spillways and tunnels. The S&T Project 20024 “Evaluation of Field Repairable Materials and Techniques for Cavitation Damage,” has compared potential materials for cavitation resistance in a high-pressure cavitation environment and found strong performance with elastomeric cavitation resistant coatings for steel substrates. Some elastomeric coating materials absorb the cavitation energy, which appears to become more important as the substrate becomes more brittle. A preliminary test to compare coated versus uncoated concrete had promising results, with little damage to the coated concrete. This research performed a literature review of elastomeric coatings that could protect concrete surfaces without damage to the underlying concrete.