Abstract
The erosion resistance of five types of tungsten carbides (with various material hardness) and stainless steel 316 (SS316) were experimentally investigated in sand-air flows. The primary purpose of this work was to evaluate the effect of materials' surface hardness on the erosion resistivity of different samples at various impact angles and velocities. A gas-sand loop consisting of a compressor, sand feeder, nozzle, and pressure regulator was developed to create gas flows contaminated with solid particles. Before performing the erosion experiments, the average sand particle velocity was calibrated with the gas velocity using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. Six particle impact angles (15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°) and velocities (10, 20,30, 45, 50, and 60 m/s) were chosen to perform the study. Two-average sand sizes of 75 and 150 μm were considered, with a total mass of impacting particles ranging between 900 -2700 g. To ensure the repeatability of the results, experiments were at least repeated twice for each testing condition. Mass loss of studied materials had indicated that the increase in surface hardness significantly improves erosion resistivity.
