Correlation of Cavitation Erosion and Sound Pressure Level

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of a correlation between the cavitation erosion rate of 99 percent pure aluminium and the sound pressure level of the cavitation noise. The data used were obtained recently for a variety of cavitation inducers and specimen locations at both the University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. and the Admiralty Marine Technology Establishment, Holton Heath. A regression analysis of the logarithm of erosion rate on sound pressure level, expressed in decibels, shows that for each configuration there is a significant correlation, which is independent of fluid velocity and cavitation number, although the likely error is quite large. It is concluded that an absolute relation between erosion and sound pressure cannot be ruled out and that in any case it would be possible to define a relation for a given configuration provided that calibration could be done in advance.