Key roles of micro-particles in water on occurrence of cavitation-erosion of hydro-machinery

It has been believed for about one hundred years that the cavitation directly induces the cavitation erosion. It is proposed in this research that cavitation is only the necessary condition but not the sufficient condition of the cavitation erosion. The experiment performed on the rotary disk cavitation system shows that the micro-particles in the fluid play indispensable roles in the cavitation erosion process, and the generation of the erosion pits on the steel surface is also affected by the particles’ size. These cracks and deformations on the sample surface indicate that the erosion is the result of the mechanical behavior. Numerical calculations are also provided to support this mechanism.