Erosion of unfilled elastomers by solid particle impact

The response has been studied of eight unfilled elastomers (four natural rubber compounds, epoxidized natural rubber ENR50, butyl rubber, polybutadiene and polyurethane) to erosion by 150 m silica sand at an impact velocity of 48 m sec^–1. All were tested at an impact angle of 30°, close to the impact conditions occurring in pipe bends, while two were also tested at 90°. Wide variations in erosion rate were observed between different rubbers. These differences did not correlate systematically with the nature of the base elastomer, glass transition temperature or mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength or ultimate tensile elongation, nor with resistance to abrasive wear. Good correlation was, however, found with rebound resilience. A high resilience tended to imply high erosion resistance, The erosion rate was found empirically to be proportional to the quantity (1 - fractional resilience) raised to the power 1.4. Different surface morphologies were found in specimens of high and low resilience after erosion at 30°. Finely spaced transverse ridges formed on high-resilience rubbers, whereas surface features on low-resilience rubbers showed no directionality. Preliminary conclusions are drawn about possible mechanisms of material removal.