Image processing approach for estimating the degree of surface degradation by corrosion

Hydraulic machines are permanently exposed to degradation by erosion. Erosion corrosion can be a very aggressive one, being caused by the environment in which the machine operates. This paper proposes a method for assessing the degree of degradation by erosion corrosion based on image processing using open source software. Such a method, which is cheap and easy to implement, offers the possibility of monitoring the surface degradation in time and it can be useful in the maintenance of hydraulic turbines or wind turbines. To illustrate the proposed method, a case study for a wicket gate blade is presented.