Study on effect of microparticle’s size on cavitation erosion in solid-liquid system

Abstract

Five different solutions containing microparticles in different sizes were tested in a vibration cavitation erosion experiment. After the experiment, the number of erosion pits on sample surfaces, free radicals HO∙ in solutions, and mass loss all show that the cavitation erosion strength is strongly related to the particle size, and 500nm particles cause more severe cavitation erosion than other smaller or larger particles do. A model is presented to explain such result considering both nucleation and bubble-particle collision effects. Particle of a proper size will increase the number of heterogeneous nucleation and at the same time reduce the number of bubble-particle combinations, which results in more free bubbles in the solution to generate stronger cavitation erosion.