Accelerated Cavitation Screening of Organic Coatings Using Acoustic Emission Technique

This paper describes the development of an accelerated cavitation screening method for coatings using the concept of acoustic emission. The analytical models correlating acoustic emission signal properties to measurable cavitation parameters of coatings are described. Some experimental results concerning organic coatings are presented. The analysis of experimental results indicates that the acoustic emission technique is a promising method for the accelerated cavitation screening of coatings. Moreover, the present screening method is an improvement over other existing screening methods in that it has the capability of continuously monitoring cavitation damage. The applicability and limitations of the acoustic emission based screening technique are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research and development work.