ACCELERATED SURFACE EROSION BY CAVITATING PARTICULATE-LADEN FLOWS

This short paper describes the results of a series of tests that were carried out to assess the erosion suffered by a fluidic valve controll ing sand-laden water. Two valves were arranged in series so that each handled the same flows, but, because of the pressures in the system, t he water in the second valve was cavitating. With only cavitation eros ion the surface of the valve was merely discoloured. With particulate erosion in the non-cavitating flow there was some material removal by abrasion. With both cavitation and sand particles in the flow there wa s very considerable material removal, much more than would be expected from summing the two individual effects.