Sand–water slurry erosion of API 5L X65 pipe steel as quenched from intercritical temperature

The objective of this study was to analyse the erosion of API 5L X65 pipe steel whose microstructure consisted of ferrite and martensite obtained by quenching from intercritical temperature (770°C). Jet impingement tests with sand–water slurry were used. The changes in mechanical properties, caused by heat treatment carried out, did not induce changes in either the mechanism or erosion resistance. The erosion rate increased with angle of attack until 30° and later decreased until 90°. The microtexture of the eroded surfaces, at angles of attack of 30° and 90°, were similar for both conditions and were composed of craters and platelets at several stages of evolution. The erosion mechanism was by extrusion with the forming and forging of platelets.     

Some Coriolis slurry erosion test developments

The Coriolis test has developed into a useful way of evaluating the slurry erosion behaviour of materials. Wear mapping has revealed some sensitivity to test conditions so both the tester and test procedures continue to evolve. Experiments with very dilute model slurries comprising a ‘pinch’ of glass beads, or a single glass bead, gave information on bead contact depth and normal component of impingement velocities which confirmed previous theoretical predictions that erodent particles interact with the specimen in a series of low angle impacts. The superior discriminating ability of the Coriolis slurry erosion test is due to the lower interaction intensity of erodent particles with target surfaces compared to that in slurry jet testing.     

Evaluation of erosive wear resistance of TiN coatings by a slurry jet impact test

In this paper, it is proposed to use a new type of solid particle impact test (slurry jet) to swiftly evaluate wear properties of thin, single layered or multilayered coatings. By the slurry jet, 1.2 μm alumina particles were impacted at high velocity perpendicular to thin PVD coatings of TiN deposited on high speed steel substrate materials under various substrate temperatures. Since the coatings have a much higher wear resistance than the substrate material, the wear rate increases significantly to the higher level of the HSS material when the coatings are penetrated. This is utilized in the quantification of the assessment of coating wear. A ranking of wear resistance and correlations to the coating surface hardness measured by nano-indentation tests, and coating morphology and structures are given and discussed. The TiN deposited under the highest substrate temperature proved to have the highest wear resistance although it had a relatively low hardness. The wear rate of the TiN coatings varies with the orientation of grains, that is, the {1 1 1} orientation that dominates for the high temperature deposition shows a higher wear resistance than the {1 0 0} orientation, which corresponds with the cleavage fracture behavior. Thus, it can be recommended as a screening test when evaluating coatings and coated materials.     

Electrochemical investigation of erosion-corrosion using a slurry pot erosion tester

The aim of this paper is to use a modified slurry pot erosion tester to perform in-situ electrochemical measurements during solid particle impingement to investigate the effects of velocity, sand size and sand concentration on a passive metal (UNS S31603). Samples are subjected to a set of erosion-corrosion experiments. The electrochemical response of UNS S31603 to the test parameters is plotted and compared to develop an understanding of the erosion-corrosion process. The current trend with variation of test parameters has been explained by an erosion enhanced corrosion synergistic effect. The current transients associated with depassivation and repassivation during solid particle impingement are observed through electrochemical noise measurements. It was observed that the increase in velocity and sand concentration increased the current levels during erosion-corrosion. However, the increase in sand size had a more complex response. Single particle impact experiments conducted revealed that the peak corrosion current and the repassivation time increased with increase in velocity. A linear trend was seen between the peak current and the kinetic energy. A second-order exponential decay was fitted to the repassivation kinetics of the single particle impact. SEM has been used to develop a mechanistic understanding of erosion-corrosion. The surface scars reveal that the depth of the craters and the length of the lips increase with increase in velocity. Micro-cracks also appear on these lips, believed to be due to corrosive action attacking the roots of these lips.     

Assessment of the erosion resistance of steels used for slurry handling and transport in mineral processing applications

The wear environment of steels used for containing, transporting and processing erosive mineral slurries is often such that fluid borne particles form a layer moving at high speed across the wearing surface. Information on the performance ranking of such materials is limited, particularly with respect to the influence of steel hardness and microstructure on the resistance to erosion. This is particularly important for the oil sands industry of Northern Alberta where handling and processing of essentially silica-based solids results in extremely severe wear conditions. This paper presents slurry erosion data obtained on 11 commercially available wear resistant plate and pipeline steels with hardness values up to 750 HV. These data were obtained using a Coriolis erosion tester operated at 5000 rpm with an aqueous slurry containing 10 wt.% of 200–300 μm silica sand particles.

The Coriolis erosion tester was selected because it provides a low-angle scouring action that simulates the erosive conditions encountered in oil sands and tailings pipeline transport and in some related processing operations. Results show that this test method is able to discriminate clearly between the erosion resistance of these steels, expressed in terms of specific energy (the energy necessary to remove unit volume of test material), with the most erosion resistant steel being more than five times superior to the least resistant. A graphical relation between steel hardness and erosion resistance is given. A comparison is also made between slurry erosion data and the performance of the materials in the ASTM G65 dry sand rubber wheel (DSRW) sliding abrasion test. Comments on the influence of the macro- and microstructures of the steels on their wear behaviour are included.     

Effect of heat treatment on the structure,cavitation erosion and erosion–corrosion behavior of Fe-based amorphous coatings

In this study, high-velocity oxygen-fuel sprayed amorphous coatings have been heat treated at various temperatures to form microstructures with crystalline phases. The structure, micro-hardness, cavitation erosion resistance and erosion–corrosion resistance of these coatings are compared. Crystalline phases are discovered in the coatings after heat treatments at 650 °C and 750 °C. The coating heat treated at 750 °C exhibits the poorest cavitation erosion resistance in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution among all coatings due to the degraded corrosion resistance. However, the hardness of the crystallized coating can reach 1000 Hv and the erosion–corrosion resistance of the heat treated coating is better than the untreated one.     

Numerical simulation of the tube erosion resulted from particle impacts

In this paper, tube erosion caused by the turbulent flow of a dilute particle-laden gas is studied numerically. The particle impact and rebound model and the erosion model of ductile alloys obtained by Tabakoff et al. are used to predict the particle rebound phenomena and the erosion suffered by the tubes. The results obtained in this study include the distributions of particle collision frequency and erosion of tube surface.     

Scouring erosion resistance of metallic materials used in slurry pump service

Low impact angle erosion resistance is a critical requirement of materials used in pumps, piping, valves, nozzles, cyclones and other components which transport and process most mineral slurries.The Coriolis method offers a suitable technique for assessing behavior under such scouring attack conditions. It is being used increasingly in support of the mining/mineral processing industry, to compare and discriminate between candidate materials and also assist in the development of new products and protection systems. The specific method used in the current study involves high velocity erosion with aqueous slurry containing 10 wt.% of AFS 50-70 silica test sand. This compares reasonably with the main, extremely abrasive solids constituent encountered in mining and processing oil sands deposits in northern Alberta, Canada. These are becoming a rapidly growing and critically important source of oil in North America.Abrasion resistant chrome white iron castings typically covered by the ASTM A532 standard, are used widely in slurry pump components particularly in oil sand operations. However, the development of proprietary cast hypereutectic chromium white irons with microstructures containing primary M₇C₃-type carbides, is providing the capability to significantly improve the wear performance of such parts. In certain applications where corrosion contributes significantly to overall attack, lower carbon and higher chromium-bearing variants are employed.A comparison of the Coriolis erosion behavior of a wide range of commercially available cast wear and corrosion resistant and high toughness alloys used in pump manufacture, has confirmed anticipated performance ranking and the superiority of the latest generation of hypereutectic chrome white irons. The ameliorative influence on scouring erosion behavior of high carbon content, hardness and carbide volume fraction and particularly of fine carbide size has been demonstrated. A correlation is drawn between test data and service performance.     

Understanding particle dynamics in erosion testers—A review of influences of particle movement on erosion test conditions

An understanding of particle dynamics is important when determining material erosive wear in any erosion tester, because particle impact conditions are primarily influenced by particle acceleration. A better understanding of particle dynamics in the testers will aid the control of erosion test conditions and therefore improve the accuracy of measurement. In this paper, particle dynamics in the two most popular erosion testers, the centrifugal erosion tester and the gas-blast erosion tester, has been discussed in detail. Mechanisms of particle acceleration in the two types of testers were explored and computational models of particle dynamics were described briefly. A review of the experimental determination of important characteristics of particle dynamics (such as particle velocity, particle trajectory, particle dispersion and particle rotation) showed how they influenced particle movement and therefore the particle impact conditions. In addition, comparison of the particle dynamics in the two types of erosion testers showed that differences of particle acceleration may lead to significantly different results at identical pre-set test conditions. It may be concluded that it is not possible to directly compare the results obtained in different types of erosion testers even under notionally identical test conditions.     

Degradation process of typical Ti(C,N)–Mo2C–Ni cermet in slurry erosion conditions

Degradation process of Ti(C,N)-based cermet is investigated in solid–liquid erosion conditions. The results indicate that the erosion process of Ti(C,N)-based cermet is classified into incubation, development and prevalence. In the incubation stage, the weight loss is dominated by binder deterioration; in the development stage, ceramic phase and binder failure contribute to the material loss; and in the prevalence stage, ceramic fragments removal is responsible for the material loss. Impingement of Al₂O₃ particle results in ceramic phase deterioration, while in binder the degradation is caused by impingement and microcutting. Microcracks nucleate firstly at the interface and/or in the rim phase.     

Study of solid particle erosion on AISI D2 using angular silicon carbide and steel round grit particles

Abstract

In this study, the performance of AISI D2 steel subjected to solid particle erosion tests was analysed. This material has applications for tools and dies for blanking, wood milling cutters, cold-extruding and other operations requiring high compressive strength and excellent wear resistance. The erosion tests performed by using a rig developed according to some parameters of the ASTM G76-95 standard. Two abrasive were used, angular silicon carbide (SiC) and steel round grit, both, with a particle size of 400–420 μm. This allowed comparing the erosion severity of each abrasive particle. The tests were conducted using four different incident angles 30, 45, 60 and 90° with a particle velocity of 24±2 m s^?1 and a flow rate of 21±2·5 g min^?1 for silicon carbide and 48·5±3·5 g min^?1 for the steel round grit. The exposure testing time was 10 min. Subsequently, the surface damage was analysed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to identify the wear mechanisms. Additionally, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was conducted in order to obtain roughness of the surface damage at 60°. The results indicated that higher amount of mass loss was obtained by angular silicon carbide particles.     

A simple algorithm for measuring particle size distributions on an uneven background from TEM images

Nanoparticles have a wide range of applications in science and technology. Their sizes are often measured using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or X-ray diffraction. Here, we describe a simple computer algorithm for measuring particle size distributions from TEM images in the presence of an uneven background. The approach is based on adaptive thresholding, making use of local threshold values that change with spatial coordinate. The algorithm allows particles to be detected and characterized with greater accuracy than using more conventional methods, in which a global threshold is used. Its application to images of heterogeneous catalysts is presented.     

Influence of microstructure on erosion resistance of steels

Erosive wear due to solid particle impingement is a very intensive degradation process of surface layers of metallic materials. Erosion resistance is influenced by the working conditions (impact angle, impact velocity of solid particles, size, shape, hardness and amount of impinging particles) and the parameters of the worn material like hardness and microstructure. In our experiments some structural and tool steels were tested by slurry with SiO₂ particles at a flow velocity of 20 m/s. The microstructures of the tested steels were modified in a broad range by changing the conditions of their heat treatment. Increasing pearlite share in the structure of annealed carbon and low-alloyed steels has a positive effect on their erosion resistance. The growing carbon content in the tested hardened steels increases their erosion resistance. Maximum erosion resistance was found in hardened chromium ledeburite steel. Hardened high-speed steel HS 11-0-4 in spite of its high hardness has lower erosion resistance than ledeburitic chomium steels. An increasing amount of retained austenite and decreasing carbide and martensite shares with growing quenching temperature of the tested ledeburitic chromium steels leads to the reduction of their erosion resistance.     

The effects of manganese content and mould size on abrasion and slurry erosion behaviour of chromium–manganese iron systems investigated by positron lifetime spectroscopy

Abrasion and slurry erosion behaviour of chromium–manganese iron samples with chromium (Cr) in the range 16–19% and manganese (Mn) at 5 and 10% levels have been characterized for hardness followed by microstructural examination using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Positron lifetime studies have been conducted to understand the defects/microporosity influence on the microstructure. The samples were heat treated and characterized to understand the structural transformations in the matrix. The data reveals that hardness decreased with increase in Mn content from 5 to 10% in the first instance and then increase in the section size in the other case, irrespective of the sample conditions. The abrasion and slurry erosion losses show increase with increase in the section size as well as with increase in Mn content. The positron results show that as hardness increases from as-cast to heat treated sample, the positron trapping rate and hence defect concentration showed opposite trend as expected. So a good correlation between defects concentration and the hardness has been observed. These findings also corroborate well with the microstructural features obtained from optical and scanning electron microscopy.     

Solid particle erosion of unidirectional fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites

In the present study, the solid particle erosion behaviour of neat PEEK matrix and unidirectional glass fibre (GF) and carbon fibre (CF) reinforced polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) composites has been studied. The erosion experiments have been carried out by using silica sand particles (200 ± 50 μm) as an erodent. Steady state erosion rates of these composites have been evaluated at different impact angles and impact velocities. The neat PEEK exhibited peak erosion rate at 30° impingement angle whereas the composites exhibited a semi-ductile behaviour with peak erosion rate at 60° impact angle. The erosion rate of the glass fibre reinforced composites was higher than that of the carbon fibre reinforced composites. The results show that the fibre orientation has a significant influence on erosion rate only at lower impact angles. The erosion rate of the composites was higher when the particles impact perpendicular to the fibre direction than parallel to the fibres. The morphology of eroded surfaces was observed under scanning electron microscope and damage mechanisms were discussed.     

Effect of liquid metal composition and hydrodynamic parameters on cavitation erosion

Cavitation erosion testing machine for low-temperature melting alloy liquid was developed by using a vibratory apparatus. The erosion tests of SUS304 were carried out in three kinds of lead–bismuth and deionized water. We defined a relative temperature as the percentage between freezing and boiling points. At relative temperature at 14 °C, the erosion rate is 10–12 times in various lead–bismuth alloys, and 2–5 times in sodium, as compared with that in deionized water. When SUS304 was exposed to a cavitation in PbBi, the surface was work hardened 20% harder compared with original surface. In deionized water, SUS304 was work hardened by 5%. Therefore, we can conclude that larger collapse pressure can be estimated to act on the specimen surface in lead–bismuth, as compared with that in water.We discussed the effect of hydrodynamic properties on cavitation erosion in a flowing system. It is considered that the erosion rate in sodium is in proportion to 1st to 6th power of flow velocity similarly to that in mercury. The incipient cavitation number is approximately unity irrespective of test liquids. Furthermore, the relation between MDER and cavitation number is expressed as power low of function with an exponent of 2.5.     

Control and evaluation of particle impact conditions in a sand erosion test facility

For the prediction of actual damage to plant component materials and for making the erosion mechanisms clear, it is important to control and to evaluate the particle impact conditions in a testing facility. A sand blast type erosion test rig, which can achieve the particle impact velocities up to 135 m s⁻¹ and a wide range of impact angles has been constructed. The key factors in particle impact conditions of particle flux, impact velocity and impact angle were examined. The relative distance between particles and particle size was discussed, as the particle flux affected erosion rate of material. A new method was proposed to determine particle velocities in this facility. The theoretical velocity of the particle calculated by the equations of particle motion was compared with the experimental results. The divergence of particles from a geometrical angle was evaluated by measuring surface roughness of the specimens. Although some spread of the particles were observed surrounding the central damage area of the specimen surface, the greatest amount of damage was concentrated in the center. As a result, it was found that particle impact conditions were well controlled in this testing unit.     

Effects of Cr3C2 addition on the erosion–corrosion resistance of Ti(C,N)-based cermets in alkaline conditions

Effects of Cr₃C₂ on the erosion–corrosion behavior of Ti(C,N)-based cermets are studied in alkaline conditions. The results indicate that the erosion–corrosion resistance of cermets is improved with proper Cr₃C₂ content. Corrosion performance of cermets is deteriorated by Cr₃C₂ addition in NaOH solution. With the increase of Cr₃C₂, the erosion–corrosion behavior of Ti(C,N)-based cermets is classified to be erosion regime, erosion–corrosion regime, corrosion–erosion regime and corrosion regime. Materials degradation is determined by particles erosion for cermets with low Cr₃C₂ content, while for materials containing more Cr₃C₂ addition, binder corrosion and subsequent erosion are responsible for materials deterioration.     

Erratum to “The effect of particle size on the erosion of a ductile material at the low particle size limit” [Wear 233–235 (1999) 727–736]

The intrinsic particle size dependence of erosion rate was investigated in the absence of aerodynamic effects. An apparatus was designed to impact small particles on metallic substrates at normal incidence in vacuum. Two types of target materials, Cu–30% Zn and pure Ti, were impacted with SiO₂ particles with average diameters of 2, 5 and 25 μm. The velocity of impact was 12 m/s. Damage processes induced by single particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). This latter technique allowed for the measurement of impact profiles, both of the cut surfaces and the associated displaced material pile-ups. The impacts produced were, in many cases, asymmetrical, and the asymmetries appeared to be related to the orientation of the impacted surface. The appearance of the damage was essentially the same for all three sizes of the erodent, and for two different substrate materials having different crystal structures.     

变质M2高速钢稀土离子硫碳氮共渗研究

对Y-K-Na复合变质的M2高速钢进行离子硫碳氮共渗和稀土离子硫碳氮共渗处理,研究稀土元素对复合变质M2高速钢离子硫碳氮共渗组织和性能的影响。试验结果表明:稀土元素改善变质M2高速钢渗层组织,提高表面硬度,使渗层硬度梯度平缓,可有效地提高其抗摩擦磨损的能力。