Abstract
Many studies have investigated methods to reduce cavitation damage in hydraulic turbines and reduce residual stresses after coating deposition. In this work, a cobalt stainless steel was applied by arc thermal spraying. The influence of air pressure deposition and plasma remelting on the microstructure, oxide volume fraction, porosity, microhardness, and cavitation resistance were studied. Microstructures and properties of the AS895HY cobalt stainless steel coatings were investigated by x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, microhardness testing, and ultrasonic cavitation testing (ASTM G32-93). The increase in air pressure, 280 to 550 kPa, modified the oxide fraction from 10.9±1.8% to 24.1±2.8% in the samples. The mass loss results in the cavitation tests were 13.8, 19.2, and 15.0 mg/h for the samples with 280, 410, and 550 kPa, respectively. The remelting of the sprayed coatings eliminated the oxides and porosity. Austenite formation was observed in the two remelted layers with decreases in microhardness; for the first layer, this occurred because of the AWS309L substrate dilution. The PTA remelting reduces the mass loss rate to 0.497 mg/h, with 8.02 hours incubation period. Phase transformations were observed in the remelted coating, but not verified in the arc thermal sprayed coatings.
