Droplet erosion test

The ASTM droplet erosion test involves putting specimens on the tip of a propeller that can achieve hypersonic tip velocities and the propeller is exposed to a rain field of controlled water droplets (Figure 10). Plastic materials are used for windshields and radomes on aircraft. Needless to say, it is necessary for the plastics used for these applications to have resistance to damage fiom high-velocity water droplets, fo fact, many plastics are readily destroyed by mach 2 water plets. Reinforced composites are often used for these types of... 

Figure 10. Schematic of the ASTM G 73 water droplet erosion test...

Erosive wear, liquid droplets 0 73 Practice for Liquid Impingement Erosion Testing Mass loss... 

Plastics are frequently used for applications requiring erosion resistance, but there does not seem to be much activity or interest in the tribology community of the 1990s. However, there are a number of tests that are applied and have been used to rate erosion resistance of plastics. Erosion, by definition, is progressive loss of material fiom a solid surface due to mechanical interaction between that surfitce and a fluid, a multicomponent fluid, or impinging liquid or solid particles (3). The field of erosion is usually separated into a number of forms of erosion liquid erosion, either continuous stream or droplet, solid particle erosion, slurry erosion, and cavitation erosion. Each have separate laboratory tests. 

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