Investigation of impact load and erosion behaviors on Ti-Ta alloy surface through the synergistic effect of ultrasonic cavitation and micro-abrasive particles

Ti-Ta alloy micro-nano surface processing is crucial for achieving biocompatibility. To investigate the cavitation and micro-abrasive particle damage characteristics, and the deformation mechanism of Ti-Ta alloy material surface, indentation theory, and the J-C constitutive model were adopted. Numerical load prediction models for ultrasonic cavitation and micro-abrasive particles' impact on Ti-Ta alloy surfaces were developed, and the erosion behaviors of ultrasonic cavitation and micro-abrasive particles' impact on Ti-Ta alloy surfaces individually and in synergy were experimentally investigated. The inversion analysis shows that the range of ultrasonic cavitation impact load is 0.025-1.015N, and there are material peeling and interconnection phenomena in the cavitation erosion pit. On the other hand, the impact load range of 10 μm spherical smooth SiO2 micro-abrasive particles is 0.107-0.814N, and there is no material peeling or interconnection phenomenon in the micro-abrasive particle erosion pit. Additionally, the cavitation erosion rate is determined through changes in roughness and depression volume, resulting in a rate of 38.6%. In contrast, the cavitation-induced micro-abrasive particle erosion rate reached 166.4%. The results show that the impact load and erosion rate of ultrasonic cavitation-induced micro-abrasive particles are greater than those of cavitation impact load and erosion rate. Furthermore, ultrasonic cavitation-induced micro-abrasive particles impact is found to be more conducive to achieving micro-nano processing of Ti-Ta alloy surface.