A New Approach to Evaluate the Cavitation Erosion Power

The dynamic response of various materials exposed to liquid jet and pressure wave impacts was simulated making use of an elastoplastic solid model. Numerical pit profiles were compared to experimental ones produced in test materials by the cavitation of water, mercury, or sodium. It was found that a high pressure wave emission was the main factor contributing to the observed cavitation damage. A parametric study concerning the pressure wave phenomenon was proposed and some similarity laws were obtained. By using these laws, the corresponding impact hydrodynamic parameters can be deduced from the pit geometric characteristics and the material properties. Based on that study, histograms concerning impact hydrodynamic parameters were plotted as a function of impact number and/or pit eroded volume. The influence of the mean flow velocity, the geometric scale, the fluid characteristics, and the material properties on the flow aggressivity could be evaluated during the cavitation incubation period.