Darling Harbour Woodward Water Feature

The Darling Harbour Woodward Water Feature (officially named Tidal Cascade) is a heritage-listed water fountain located at Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia. It was designed by Robert Woodward and built by Melocco Pty Ltd opening in 1988 as part of the redevelopment of the Darling Harbour precinct. The Darling Harbour Water Feature was officially opened in 1988. It was designed by Robert Woodward. The Woodward Water Feature is located in Sydney's Darling Harbour waterfront promenade. It is bounded by the International Convention Centre to the west, the Western Distributor to the south and Cockle Bay to the east. The fountain is a spiral water feature in an unassuming saucer-shaped depression in the bare harbour-side concourse; a shape cleanly cut, as if by an auger, into the pavement; ten spiraling paths for water and two for people; a mesmerizing flow of shallow rippling water. Water flows from the header at the top of each of the ten spirals as smooth, accelerating supercritical flow. When maximum velocity for the 1 in 16 gradient and roughness coefficient has been reached, the flow becomes constant and is therefore critical, a condition of least possible stability. In this unstable condition water is easily sculpted by minor external forces. The weir configuration and drag disturbance from the sides of the spiral create waves which travel downstream. The waves move across the spiral at an angle and reflect from the opposite side; crisscross interference patterns result. The wavelength is constant and sympathetic group wave action develops and continues down the spiral. This wave action is an original creation which probably does not occur in nature. The 360-square-metre (3, 900 sq ft) of crisscross wave action over 3000 identical weir stones is created by the energy from a 5 litres per second (0.18 cu ft/s) total flow, the same as from a domestic swimming pool filter.

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