Unified empirical relations for cavitation and liquid impingement erosion processes

Abstract

Several attempts have been made in the past to predict erosion due to cavitation and liquid impingement. Most of the models and formulations suffer certain deficiencies so that they do not adequately predict the magnitude of erosion, particularly during the acceleration period and for long-term exposure. This report presents a power-law relationship between average erosion rate and cumulative erosion during the acceleration and deceleration zones of erosion for copper, brass and stainless steel specimens examined in a rotating disk device. Data analyses from other types of erosion devices, including venturi, magnetostriction and liquid jet impingement, conform to the present unified relation. This agreement is indicative of the similar nature of erosion in the acceleration and deceleration zones. Attempts are made to understand the relationship between the coefficients in the power-law relation and the material properties.