Surface mechanics design by cavitation peening

Abstract

Although impacts at cavitation bubble collapses cause severe damage in hydraulic machineries, the cavitation impacts can be utilised for surface mechanics design such as introduction of compressive residual stress and/or improvement of fatigue strength. The peening method using the cavitation impacts was called as cavitation peening. In order to reveal the peening intensity of hydrodynamic cavitation and laser cavitation, the arc height of Almen strip and duralumin plate were measured. In the case of hydrodynamic cavitation, cavitation was generated by injecting a high speed water jet into water with a pressurised chamber and an open chamber, and the cavitating jet in air was also examined. The laser cavitation was produced by a pulse laser, and a high speed observation using a high speed video camera was carried out to clarify laser abrasion and laser cavitation with detecting noise by a hydrophone. It was concluded that the peening intensity by using the cavitating jet in water with the pressurized chamber was most aggressive, and the impact induced by the laser cavitation was larger than that of the laser abrasion at the present condition.