Damage by Repeated High-Speed Water-Drop Impact: Finite-Element Modeling of Erosion

Water-drop erosion may seriously damage the integrity of materials in aerospace systems. Various methods—theoretical, experimental, or numerical—may be used to investigate this phenomenon. By numerical modeling, data may be obtained regarding the stress and strain and other factors, without the need for experiments, which may be expensive and difficult to reproduce. Clear results are obtained. Numerical modeling of drop–surface interaction in equipment used to study water-drop erosion provides information regarding not only a single water drop but a flux of droplets. Ansys Workbench software is used for finite-element analysis. The utility of modeling the drop–surface interaction in determining the stress–strain state and the damage zone is considered, for a single water drop and a flux. The modeling results are compared with experimental data.