Abstract
Copper alloys are commonly applied to ship's propellers, pumps and valves which are serviced in seawater due to their good castability and corrosion resistance. In the environment of high flow velocity, however, erosion damage predominates over corrosion damage. In particular, the cavitation in seawater environment accelerates surface damage to copper alloys, resulting in degradation of products and economic losses and also threatening safety. The surface was coated with WC-27NiCr by high velocity oxygen fuel(HVOF) spraying technique to attain durability and cavitation resistance of copper alloys under high velocity/pressure flow. The cavitation test was performed for the WC-27NiCr coating deposited by HVOF in seawater at the amplitude of $30{\mu}m$ with seawater temperature. The cavitation at $15^{\circ}C$ caused exfoliation of the coating layer in 17.5 hours while that of $25^{\circ}C$ caused the exfoliation in 12.5 hours. When the temperature of seawater was elevated to $25^{\circ}C$ from $15^{\circ}C$, more damage was induced by over 160%. Although WC-27NiCr has good durability, corrosion resistance and eletrochemical stability, the cavitation damage rate of the coating layer could remarkably increase at the elevated temperatures under cavitation environments.
