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.