Evaluation of Cavitation Erosion Behavior of Commercial Steel Grades Used in the Design of Fluid Machinery

The erosion response under cavitation of different steel grades was assessed by studying the erosion rate, the volume removal, the roughness evolution, and the accumulated strain energy. A 20 kHz ltrasonic transducer with a probe diameter of 5 mm and peak-to-peak amplitude of 50 lm was deployed in distilled water to induce damage on the surface of commercial chromium and carbon steel samples. After a relatively short incubation period, cavitation induced the formation of pits, cracks, and craters whose features strongly depended on the hardness and composition of the tested steel. AISI 52100 chromium steel showed the best performance and is, therefore, a promising design candidate for replacing the existing fluid machinery materials that operate within potential cavitating environments

In situ observation and analysis of ultrasonic capillary effect in molten aluminium

An in situ synchrotron radiographic study of a molten Al-10 wt% Cu alloy under the influence of an external ultrasonic field was carried out using the Diamond-Manchester Branchline pink X-ray imaging at the Diamond Light Source in UK. A bespoke test rig was used, consisting of an acoustic transducer with a titanium sonotrode coupled with a PID-controlled resistance furnace. An ultrasonic frequency of 30 kHz, with a peak to peak amplitude at 140 microns, was used, producing a pressure output of 16.9 MPa at the radiation surface of the 1-mm diameter sonotrode. This allowed quantification of not only the cavitation bubble formation and collapse, but there was also evidence of the previously hypothesised ultrasonic capillary effect (UCE), providing the first direct observations of this phenomenon in a molten metallic alloy. This was achieved by quantifying the re-filling of a pre-existing groove in the shape of a tube (which acted as a micro-capillary channel) formed by the oxide envelope of the liquid sample. Analytical solutions of the flow suggest that the filling process, which took place in very small timescales, was related to micro-jetting from the collapsing cavitation bubbles. In addition, a secondary mechanism of liquid penetration through the groove, which is related with the density distribution of the oxides inside the groove, and practically to the filtration of aluminium melt from oxides, was revealed. The observation of the almost instantaneous re-filling of a micro-capillary channel with the metallic melt supports the hypothesised sono-capillary effect in technologically important liquids other than water, like metallic alloys with substantially higher surface tension and density.ExoMet Project which is co-funded by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Programme (contract FP7-NMP3-LA-2012-280421), by the European Space Agency and by the individual partner organisations, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (EP/K005804/1 and EP/I02249X/1) and the Research Complex at Harwell