Effects of plastic deformation ability and fluid medium on the cavitation erosion behavior of carbon nanotube reinforced cermet coatings

In this work, the cermet/MWCNTs powder was manufactured and the composite coatings with MWCNTs-reinforced interlayer interface were fabricated by the high-velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) spraying to enhance the cavitation erosion resistance (CER). MWCNTs effectively reduced the porosities and increased the plastic deformation ability of the composite coatings. In distilled water, MWCNTs in the interlayer dispersed stress and inhibited crack initiation during cavitation erosion. The incorporation of 0.2wt.% MWCNTs led to a significant enhancement in the CER of the composite coatings, exhibiting an improvement rate of 39.34%. The cavitation erosion mechanism changed from micro-jet impact to micro-particle impact in SiO2 dispersion. The spalling effect during the micro-particle impact process diminished the reinforcement of MWCNTs and the CER of the composite coatings.