In certain applications like aerospace, when water droplets impact aircrafts in transit moving at high velocities, repetitive impacts of a surface with water droplets can be more destructive than impact with solid particles. This is due to high impact pressure leading to shear waves and lateral jetting.

Repetitive water droplet impact on any component can affect its performance efficiency due to surface irregularities – increased roughness and formation of craters. Aircrafts operating in rainy conditions show wear in the leading edges of the wings, engine and rotor blades. In power plants the steel pipe thinning process is attributed to repetitive impact of condensed water droplets. Wear due to such conditions increase the cost of operation and maintenance. Studying these processes and designing materials and mechanisms for optimized performance can contribute greatly to increased life and performance.

The Ducom Liquid Droplet Erosion Tester simulates the pressure, droplet size and velocity of the rain droplets to investigate erosion of aerospace components and transport systems in power plants.