INVESTIGATIONS OF CAVITATION RESISTANCE OF COPPER ALLOYS WITH THE USE OF MASS LOSSES MEASUREMENT

Cavitation erosion is a negative effect of exposing the surfaces of structural elements to the cavitation process, which results in the destruction of the material. The studies conducted so far have not yet defined unequivocal data on the resistance to cavitation erosion of construction materials. The article presents the results of tests of resistance to cavitation erosion of selected copper alloys. For the tests, samples made of bronze BA1032 and brass CC754S were used. The tests were carried out on the Hielschier UP 400St cavitation test stand. Each of the samples was exposed to the cavitation process under laboratory conditions in distilled water. An attempt was made to determine the cavitation resistance of the tested materials using measurements of mass losses and analysis of erosion curves.