Correlations between mechanical properties and cavitation erosion resistance for stainless steels with 12% Chromium and variable contents of Nickel

The running time of hydraulic machineries in cavitation conditions, especially blades and runners, depend on both chemical composition and mechanical properties of the used steels. The researches of the present paper have as goal to obtain new materials with improved behavior and reduced costs. There are given cavitation erosion results upon eight cast steels with martensite as principal structural constituent. The chromium content was maintained constant at approximate 12% but the nickel content was largely modified. The change of chemical content resulted in various proportions of austenite, martensite and ferrite and also in different cavitation erosion behavior. From the eight tested steels four have greater carbon content (approximately 0.1%) and the other four less carbon content (approximate 0.036%). All steels were tested separately in two laboratory facilities: T1 with magnetostrictive nickel tube (vibration amplitude 94 μm, vibration frequency 7000 ± 3% Hz, specimen diameter 14 mm and generator power 500 W) and T2 is respecting the ASTM G32-2010 Standard (vibration amplitude 50μm, vibration frequency 20000 ± 1% Hz, specimen diameter 15.8 mm and generator power 500 W). Analyzing the results it can be seen that the cavitation erosion is correlated with the mechanical properties in the way shown in 1960 by Hammitt and Garcia but is influenced by the structural constituents