The role of adiabatic shear in solid particle erosion

A comparison is made of the deformation produced when titanium and mild steel target specimens are impacted obliquely by flat-ended cylindrical projectiles. The impact process is studied by high speed photography; it is shown that whereas in mild steel material is not removed from the surface but merely displaced, in titanium, the displaced material detaches by a process involving the formation of adiabatic shear bands. Attention is drawn to the influence of susceptibility to adiabatic shear on resistance to solid particle erosion.