Cavitation damages on solid surfaces in suspensions containing spherical and irregular microparticles

Spherical and irregular microparticles both in the size of 5 mu m were put into the de-ionized water respectively to form different suspensions, and vibrating cavitation experiments were performed in the two kinds of suspensions. After the experiment, the damages on the specimen surfaces were measured and free radicals in suspensions were detected. It was found that suspensions with particles cause more severe cavitation erosion than those without particles. Compared with a spherical particle, the shape of the irregular particle has little effect on the number of the cavities, but it causes abrasion on the solid surface besides the cavitation erosion. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.