Effect of liquid metal composition and hydrodynamic parameters on cavitation erosion

Cavitation erosion testing machine for low-temperature melting alloy liquid was developed by using a vibratory apparatus. The erosion tests of SUS304 were carried out in three kinds of lead–bismuth and deionized water. We defined a relative temperature as the percentage between freezing and boiling points. At relative temperature at 14 °C, the erosion rate is 10–12 times in various lead–bismuth alloys, and 2–5 times in sodium, as compared with that in deionized water. When SUS304 was exposed to a cavitation in PbBi, the surface was work hardened 20% harder compared with original surface. In deionized water, SUS304 was work hardened by 5%. Therefore, we can conclude that larger collapse pressure can be estimated to act on the specimen surface in lead–bismuth, as compared with that in water. We discussed the effect of hydrodynamic properties on cavitation erosion in a flowing system. It is considered that the erosion rate in sodium is in proportion to 1st to 6th power of flow velocity similarly to that in mercury. The incipient cavitation number is approximately unity irrespective of test liquids. Furthermore, the relation between MDER and cavitation number is expressed as power low of function with an exponent of 2.5.