Effects of Solid Particle Properties on Cavitation Erosion in Solid-Water Mixtures

Abstract

A systematic investigation has been carried out on cavitation erosion in solid-water mixtures using vibratory test facilities and some analytical devices. A mixture of distilled water and heterogeneous solid particles is used. It is shown in this work that solid particles play significant roles on acoustic cavitation erosion through two ways when present in liquids. They, aggravate the abrasive wear of materials owing to the effects of particle size, concentration, and hardness. In addition, they relieve the damage produced by the reduction of the collapse pressure of cavitation bubble because of the variation of the physical properties in mixtures. Total erosion is dependent on this governing factor.

Cavitation by spall fracture of solid walls in liquids

“…Pipe ducts, turbines and many other technical systems are exposed to this type of wear. The wear rate is significantly higher than the cavitation induced wear in pure liquids (Hengyun et al 1986, Zhao et al 1993, Huang et al 1996, Chen et al 2009). Both cavitation induced bubble collapse and abrasive particles impact on the solid surface, thus forming longitudinal, radial and lateral cracks, which then lead to material splitting off (see Figure 1).…”

Key roles of micro-particles in water on occurrence of cavitation-erosion of hydro-machinery

“…The surface condition of a solid was proved to affect the heterogeneous nucleation process in the experiments reviewed by Jones et al [5] ; the growth kinetics was theoretically provided by Gniloskurenko et al [6] and Mørch [7] . The effect of the particle's size on cavitation erosion was quantitatively studied by Huang et al [8] in the sand-water mixture and by Chen et al [9] in the de-ionized water containing selected particles during the vibration cavitation. In our study, we discovered that micro-particles in the flow played key roles in the generation of cavitation-erosion in cavitation erosion experiment simulating hydro-machinery.…”

Effect of microparticle properties on erosion in solid-steam mixtures

“…Huang et al [13] investigated the effect of solid particle properties on cavitation erosion in solid-water mixtures. Particle abrasion was found to be so severe that it was difficult to distinguish the damage caused by cavitation erosion.…”