Different Aspects of Cavitation Damages in Some Stainless Steels

Abstract

Cavitation is an important factor in many areas of science and engineering, including acoustics, chemistry and hydraulics. In this paper the authors analyze the manner of cavitation damages in different samples of stainless steels. Cavitation destruction was performed in a magnetostrictive vibrating apparatus in Laboratory of Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania. Cavitation erosion behaviour was appreciated considering macrostructural analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) made at stereomicroscope type OLYMPUS equipped with QuickMicrophoto 2.2 software and structural analysis at scaning electron microscope (SEM) at Philips SEM microscope. Finally conclusions regarding specific structural features of cavitation at stainless steels were revealed