Ricerc@Sapienza

In this paper an analysis of the erosion mechanism of water droplets impacting a compressor blade is performed. Three different models are compared: the Springer et al. model, developed in 1974 for predicting rain erosion on wind turbine blades; a new model developed by the authors to predict water droplet erosion on stainless steel surfaces and Tabakoff et al. (1979) model for solid particle erosion.

Here, a new model for predicting the water droplet erosion (WDE) from online water washing in compressors is developed and its results are discussed in comparisons with a baseline model. The model development started with the analysis of existing WDE models as well as pertinent experimental campaigns aiming at extracting a comprehensive erosion model able to account for the influence of droplet velocity and diameter, impact angle, surface roughness and hardness on the erosion phenomena.