SEM Studies of Particles Produced by Cavitation Erosion

Abstract

Scanning electron microscopic investigations of particles produced by cavitation erosion and fracture surfaces for 304 stainless steel, revealed that the dominant mode of cavitation erosion is fatigue failure. In addition, the surface roughness facilitates the separation of particles, especially the longitudinal ones. The gathered particles can be classified into three types according to their shapes, namely the longitudinal, the triangular and the mixed quadrangle hexagon. The spherical particles, which were reported in a previous study on cavitation erosion, are not observed in this work.