Influence of cavitation intensity on X6CrNiTi18-10 stainless steel performance in the incubation period

In order to determine the incubation period of the X6CrNiTi18-10 steel tests were conducted at different cavitation conditions in a cavitation chamber with a slot cavitator. The material damage and the microhardness variations were analyzed. Short-duration (5 min) tests permitted to investigate changes in dislocation structure and 1 h tests were performed in order to investigate material damage and changes in microhardness arisen during incubation period under different cavitation intensities. Long-duration (16 h) tests allowed to establish correlation between the mass loss and cavitation intensity as well as the relationships between the cavitation erosion rate and cavitation intensity. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.