Regularities of steel wear under the impact of discrete water-droplet stream, Part I: Initial stage of droplet-impingement erosion

Key features of plastic deformation and erosive wear craters that develop in the surface layer of austenitic and sorbite structure steels during the incubation period of the droplet-impingement erosion have been studied. Using electron microscopy, nanoindentation, and simulation, it has been shown that the degradation of the surface at the initial erosion stages is caused by fatigue processes that develop under hydrodynamic cavitation. Based on Goodman’s fatigue model, the conditions for the safe operation of the material under the impact of droplet impingements are defined.