• Fivel, Marc C.
• Ylönen, Markku
• Saarenrinne, Pentti
• Nyyssönen, Tuomo
• Miettinen, Juha
• Franc, Jean-Pierre

Abstract

International audience ; Cavitation erosion is the most important erosion mechanism in Francis turbine runner blades. For this reason, knowledge of a material's ability to resist cavitation is important in defining how suitable it is for use in a Francis turbine. In this study, three Francis turbine materials were subjected to cavitation erosion in a high-speed cavitation tunnel. One of the materials was a low-alloy steel, and the other two were stainless steels. The cavitation tunnel produced an annular cavitation field on one face of a cylindrical specimen. The test specimens underwent cavitation erosion until the erosion had reached a maximum penetration depth of about 0.5 mm. The material surface profiles were measured at regular intervals to calculate volume and mass loss. These losses were compared to those of several other materials that had undergone the same tests with the same setup and operational parameters. The materials were compared according to their steady-state erosion rates. The steady-state erosion rate represents a material's ability to resist cavitation erosion once cavitation damage has already started to develop. The low-alloy steel eroded four times faster than the two stainless steels. One of the stainless steels tested here (Stainless steel 1) had the lowest erosion rate, along with another previously tested stainless steel. The other stainless steel (Stainless steel 2) had a slightly greater erosion rate than the first, falling into the same class as other lower-grade stainless steels and a nickel aluminum bronze alloy. The results show that in choosing a turbine blade material, stainless steels outperform Manuscript

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• nickel
• stainless steel
• scanning electron microscopy
• aluminium
• fatigue
• aluminum bronze