Abstract
Wear due to cavitation in non-aqueous liquids can be serious, leading to premature failures of valves, bearings, and even pumps. Although it can be shown that the collapse of vapour cavities will cause more damage than those containing some gas it is not possible to predict theoretically and with any certainty the stresses produced in materials. Thus, at present, laboratory erosion tests offer the best means of determining the relative behaviour of materials in a single liquid. However, previous experimental investigations using the vibratory cavitation test with different liquids have also been inadequate because of the many variables in the process and the lack of control over the test liquid conditions. An improved test device of the same type has been built at NEL in which temperature, pressure, and gas content can be varied independently. This has eliminated many of the disadvantages of former equipment and permitted a study of the effects of fluid properties to be started.
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