Cavitation Induced Accumulated Strain in Elastomeric Coatings
Abstract
In this study, we estimate the accumulated strain on an elastomeric coating based on a statistical description of cavitation aggressiveness and the elasto-visco-plastic material constitutive behavior under very high rate and pressure loadings commonly seen due to cavitation bubble collapses. The polyurea used in this research is synthesized by the reaction of Versalink P-1000 and 650 (Air Products) and Isonate 143L (Dow Chemicals) to produce PU-105 and PU-605 formulations, respectively. Considering the creep compliance of each formulation, the retardation of strain recovery in polyurea after the collapse of individual vapor bubbles is analyzed. Given the statistics of bubble collapse, the time available for the recovery is reduced as the aggressiveness of cavitating flow increases. Instantaneous creep compliance, retardation time, and corresponding spectrum lines for PU-105 and 605 are found based on Prony series fits of the storage modulus master curves. The onset of “yielding” and post-yield hardening behavior is derived based on the uniaxial pressure split Hopkinson bar data at high strain rate levels. The effect of pressure is included based on a thermodynamic model, since the material transitions towards glassy response with increasing pressure. Results show that for low surface pressure loads there would be no post-yield deformation as near-full recovery occurs instantly, resulting in negligible accumulated strain. For high loads that occur infrequently, while the material deforms past the yield point, it is allowed to recover nearly fully before another high impulse event happens. However, for larger pressure loads occurring at high enough frequency, the multiple loading events lead to significant strain accumulation and ultimately damage. These results fully agree with the experimentally observed behavior of PU-105 and PU-605 in various cases, where a sharp threshold of damage has been observed, below which there is no observable surface changes in the coating.