Tribological Application in Hydropower Engineering in China

China has abundant in hydropower resources. The total installed capacity has already reached more than 100 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world. Hydropower plays an enormous role in China economic development. Wide distribution of hydropower stations makes enormous differences for geological conditions, climates and water resources status. The hydraulic water head of many hydropower stations varies significantly with seasons. Water flow contains much sand. These factors result in severe wear at hydraulic turbine transition parts and serious damage to hydraulic construction. Tribological problems in hydropower in China are supported by an NSFC project where novel testing devices and approaches have been investigated for hydraulic turbine transition parts. Wear mechanism and anti-wear coating technology on hydraulic turbine transition parts have been studied. Some coating technologies have been used in practice with good protection of hydraulic turbine transition parts. Also, wear-resistance surface protection in hydraulic construction has been studied. Bionic surface technique based on UHMWPE and polyurea coating have been developed and used in hydraulic construction.