Stainless steel cavitation damage

Weld overlays of stainless steel or cobalt-based wear-resistant and hard-facing alloys such as Stellite may salvage damaged equipment. In addition, weld overlays incorporated into susceptible zones of new equipment may provide cost-effective resistance to cavitation damage. 

A study of E-glass/PVC foam sandwich panels [101] ranked this kind of material above stainless steel in respect of cavitation resistance. On the other hand some investigations have reported damage, as the following examples illustrate. 

Such predictions may provide inputs for fatigue-relaxation damage modeling, which should he based on the synergy between oxidation and oxide layer fracture in tempered martensite-ferritic steels but creep cavitation in austenitic stainless steels. 

Subsurface metal shows evidence of mechanical deformation. As a general rule, cast alloys are likely to suffer more damage than wrought versions of the same alloy. Ductile materials, such as wrought austenitic stainless steels, have the best resistance to cavitation. 

Areas of struetural metals affected by cavitation can be surfaced with welding wire or strip, overlay welding, or eoating with dense high-tensUe materials that resist cavitation damage (e.g. chromium stainless steel 18-8). 

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