Effects of Surface Hardness and Other Material Properties on Erosive Wear of Metals by Solid Particles

Abstract

Erosion of a material from a metal surface by the action of impinging SiC particles is studied. In a brief review, it is shown that investigators have correlated erosion wear with several material properties. These include fully annealed properties such as surface hardness, or properties relating to atomic band strength such as modulus of elasticity. In this paper, which studies the erosion wear for a number of pure ductile materials as well as alloys in the copper-nickel system, it is shown that a better correlation with erosion wear is achieved by using the Vickers hardness value of the fully work-hardened surface of the material. This quantity is probably the best material parameter to use in predictions of erosion resistance of metals and in the modelling of the erosion process.