A Cavitation Erosion Model for Ductile Materials

International audienceAn analytical model is proposed for the prediction of cavitation erosion of ductile materials. It is based upon a physical analysis of the work-hardening process due to the successive bubble collapses. The material is characterized by its classical stress-strain relationship and its metallurgical behavior is analyzed from microhardness measurements on cross sections of eroded samples. The flow aggressiveness is determined from pitting tests, using the material properties to go back to the impact loads. The histogram of impact loads is applied numerically a large number of times on the material surface and the evolution of the mass loss with the exposure time is computed. The approach is supported by experimental tests