Cavitation erosion performance of steel, ceramics, carbide and PEEK materials

Abstract

Cavitation erosion has to be taken into consideration during material selection in many industrial sectors, e.g. offshore, marine and oil and gas, where the components operates under severe working conditions.
The cavitation erosion equipment, located at the University of Southampton (UoS), uses a vibratory apparatus to compare, rank and characterise the cavitation erosion performance of materials. This paper highlights some of the results obtained from industrial research (consultancy) work employing a Hielscher UIP1000hd 20 kHz ultrasonic transducer. The transducer is attached to a titanium horn to induce the formation and collapse of cavities in the liquid creating erosion (material loss) of the specimen under test.
The results from erosion cavitation testing (in accordance with ASTM G32) of two commercially available steels are presented and shown to have less resistance to cavitation when compared to PEEK, ceramics and carbide materials. These materials are presented along with Nickel 200 which was used to normalise the results. A plot of cumulative erosion vs exposure time was determined by periodic interruption of the test.

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