Predictive capability of long-term cavitation and liquid impingement erosion models

A brief overview is presented of long-term cavitation and liquid impingement erosion and modeling methods proposed by different investigators, including the curve-fitting approach and a power law relationship recently suggested from this laboratory. A table is prepared to highlight the number of variables necessary for each model in order to compute the erosion versus time curves. An attempt was made to investigate the importance of the different models using data from both cavitation and liquid impingement devices. Detailed analysis of data sets indicates that the normalized curve-fitting approach suggested from this laboratory affords a better solution than other models for certain sets of data with scatter bands to cover a wide range of experimental conditions. The study also indicates that the methods proposed by Heymann and Thiruvengadam are good for the prediction of individual materials following the peak erosion rate. A power law relation proposed between cavitation erosion rate and cumulative erosion may solve several modeling problems.