Kinetics of the Change in the Surface Profile of Aluminum Bronzes during Cavitation Wear

Aluminum bronzes used in manufacturing ship propellers have been tested for cavitation wear using magnetostrictive vibrator in fresh water. The cavitation attack intensity was varied by changing the amplitude of horn end oscillations from 15 to 25 µm. It has been demonstrated that, within the incubation period of the cavitation wear, the arithmetic mean deviation R a of the assessed profile, which is the parameter of roughness height, increases as linear function of the test duration. The R a value that corresponds to the end of the incubation period is constant and does not depend on the cavitation attack intensity. The revealed characteristic properties allow the profile measurements to be used in predicting the duration of the incubation period for the cavitation wear of aluminum bronzes.