Presets
Playback
Water, wheel and hammer
The wheel converts a share eta of the water power rho g Q H into shaft power; the shaft torque is P / omega, and four cams per turn lift the hammer by h so each blow carries m g h.
Model checks
The science
What is modelled
Water from a head tank turns a vertical wheel; the wheel shaft carries four cams that lift the tail of a pivoted hammer (a helve). The hammer is released and falls freely on the anvil. All the energy of the blows must come from the wheel shaft.
Equations
- Water power
P = rho g Q H; shaft powerP eta; torqueT = P_shaft / omega. - Energy per blow
m g h, impact speedsqrt(2 g h), blows per minute = 4 x rpm. - Hammer work rate = energy per blow x blows per second, which can never exceed the shaft power.
Checks run in the page
- Power chain from flow and head to shaft.
- Torque from power and speed.
- Numerical free fall against sqrt(2 g h).
- The energy ceiling, including an infeasible case.
Honest simplifications
A single lumped efficiency, no hammer lever ratio, rebound or anvil losses, no wheel dynamics or friction, and a hammer drawn as a pivoted rod. An illustrative heritage-machine model, not a design tool.
What to try
- Press Heavy hammer, fast wheel: the work rate passes the shaft power and the page flags it as infeasible.
- Press Low river and watch the available power fall.
- Raise the lift: energy per blow grows linearly with h while the blows per minute stay fixed.