Wear - Elsevier Sequoia S.A.

, Lausanne - Printed in the Netherlands 447

THE INTERACTION OF PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR IN

EROSION PROCESSES*

G. P. TILLY AND WENDY SAGE

National Gas Turbine Establishment, Pyestock, Farnborough, Hants. (Gt. Britain)
(Received August 31, 1970)

SUMMARY

The results of earlier work to determine the effects of velocity and dust
characteristics on sand erosion are summarised and new data presented. Evaluation
of the erosion resistance of materials as diverse as metals, plastics and ceramics shows
that there is a very wide range of behaviour that cannot be simply related to a
mechanical property such as strength or hardness. Testing of reinforced plastics
(type 66 nylon and an epoxy resin) shows that reinforcement may improve or worsen
the resistance to erosion, depending on the type of fibres used.
Consideration of the mechanism of erosion leads to the suggestion that im-
pacting particles initially cause pitting and extrusion and may break into fragments
which cause secondary damage in directions radial to the point of initial impact.
The mechanism of the fragmentation has been studied by high speed photography
and examination of the surface topography of single impacts. For different initial
sizes of particle against the 11% chromium steel, type 66 nylon, and fibreglass, it is
shown that there is a minimum size below which the particles do not break up.

INTRODUCTION

In the past few years, sand erosion of gas turbine engines used to power both
military and civil vehicles has become generally recognised as a major problem. Early
British experience obtained from desert trials of helicopters and hovercraft has been
summarised by HIBBERT~ and WOODWAR@.
Erosion is usually caused by ingestion of dust clouds containing particles that
are typically o-150 ,um in size, and examination of different terrains has indicated
that the most abundant erosive constituent is usually quartz. The most serious
erosive damage is to the compressor bladinga. Typical impacts occur at velocities of
800-1500 ft./s and may be at normal angles for leading edges or glancing angles
towards the trailing edges where wear is prevalent, resulting in the aerodynamic
profile being impaired. For some engines this may result in losses of efficiency leading
to reduced power; for others, the surge margin may be reduced to an unsafe level. It
appears that all sizes of engines, whether having axial or centrifugal compressors, are

* An updated version of a paper given at the ASME Winter Meeting, Los Angeles, November 1969.

Wear, 16 (1970) 447-465

liable to incur erosion in varying degrees. However, small engines tend to be most
susceptible because the blading may have edge radii as little as 0.005 in., so that verf
little wear can cause significant losses of performance.
The most immediate method of reducing erosion of existing installations is 1~5
filtration of the air intake. However, the degree of filtration necessary is very mucll
dependent upon the minimum size of particle to be removed, and an increased
understanding is required of the influence of particle size for different velocities,
angles of impact and materials.
In an effort to define and understand the significance of the parameters
controlling erosion, testing was initially performed with a simple air-blast rig* at the
relatively low speed of 340 ft./s. Although having the disadvantages associated with
the aerodynamic features of airflow approaching a target not necessarily simulative
of a compressor blade, this machine was very simple and could be used for studies of
the influence of parameters such as temperature, impact angle, quantity of abrasive
and tensile stress. Analysis of the influence of the airflow on the particle trajectories
showed that under the testing conditions involved, particles bigger than -20 1~~11
were unaffected. Smaller particles were deflected so that a reduced proportion im-
pacted against the target and these did so at modified velocities and angles. Calculated
values of the resulting erosion for flat plates and cylinders agreed tolerably well with
experimental data.
Unfortunately, testing techniques involving acceleration of particles in an air
stream present difficulties at higher speeds and for dusts having a large range of
particle sizes such as occur in the current US Mil. Spec. (Mil-E-5ooTC), which involves
o-1000 pm. In order to try to eliminate these problems and devise an erosion test to
be used over a wider range of conditions than hitherto, a simplified whirling arm has
been developed for operation in vacuum. Early work $36demonstrated that speeds of
up to 1800 ft./s at angles of 10-90~ can be obtained relatively easily with very low
levels of power and noise. The erosiveness of different types of abrasive (from both
industrial and natural sources) was investigated using an I I “0 chromium steel target
at 90” and 420 ft./s, and empirical relations were obtained for erosiveness as a function
of particle hardness, shape and size. For natural samples, quartz content was found
to vary widely with geographic location and was also dependent upon particle size;
for example, for a sample from North Africa, 40% of the O---IOpm fraction was quartz
compared with 90% of the 125-150 pm fraction. A linear relation was established
between erosiveness and quartz content for the 1~5-150 ,um fractions sieved from
soils taken from different geographic locations. The influence of particle size was
examined for 5-350 pm quartz, and it was shown that typical compressor blade
materials exhibit no significant erosion for up to w 5 ,um, but larger particles cause an
increasing amount of erosion up to a critical size beyond which it is constant. This
critical size is itself dependent upon velocity, and increased from about 45 ,um at 420
ft./s to 105 pm at 1000 ft./s.
Investigation of the influence of velocity (V) showed that it is related to erosion
(E) by the simple power law,
&=alia (1)
where a is the material constant characterising the relative erosiveness. For r25-r5o
pm quartz, the exponent ‘x was found to be 2.3 for materials as diverse as metals and

Wear, 16 (1970) 447-465

PARTICLE AND MATERIhL ~~H~~VIO~R IN EROSION PROCESSES 449

plastics. For particles of ~25 ,um down to 25 ym in size, 1: was found to decrease from
2.3 to 2.0.
This paper describes the results of further work concerned with extending the
investigation of the influence of velocity to other materials and to examining the role
played by the impacting particles.

THE WHIRLING ARM EROSION TEST

The whirling arm rig consists of a chamber evacuated to better than 10-3 torr
containing a rotor arm having specimens attached to each end as described in earlier
work5 (see Fig. I). Briefly, a weighed quantity of dust is fed as a finely controlled
stream so that all of it should fall into the path of the rotating specimens which impact
it into a peripheral catchment. The test-faces of the specimens are usually flat, as
shown in Fig. 2, but aero-foil sections are also used in cases where it is required to
obtain more simulative data. The speed of the specimens can be measured very
precisely with a capacitive pick-up. The erosion E is measured as the weight loss of the

Fig. 1. Whirling arm rig.

Ii/ear, 16 (1970) 447-465

450 cc. I’. l‘lI,I~Y, w. ShGli

specimens caused by unit weight of dust for experimental convenience, but in cases
where materials having differing densities (Q) are being compared, it is expressed as
the volumetric loss caused by unit weight of dust, i.e. F/P.

(a) 900 IMPACT SPECIMEN (b) 200 IMPACT SPECIMEN

250 F1,S 130 Fllf 1*00 Flls ww n,s

(4 AREAS OF SPECIMEN ERODED ON 6” RAO. RIG

Fig. 2. Erosion specimens

Initially, some tests were conducted to investigate whether a whirling arm in

vacuum causes any fundamental experimental differences from the apparently more
simulative air blast testing due to effects such as:
(i) In vacuum, irregular particles are unlikely to become aligned as in an air
stream where there is an increased liability for the sharpest part to strike the specimen.
(ii) Centrifugal stresses are imposed (up to about 6 ton/in2 for steel).
(iii) None of the aerodynamic features of the particle flow are imposed.

Wrar, 16 (1970) 447-465

PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BEHAvI~uR IN EROSION PROCESSES 4s

(iv)Thepe rio dci ac t ion of the erosion might lead to an artificial “concentration”
type effect.
(v) There is reason to believe that impacts causing erosion also cause extreme
loca.lised heating*. This is presumably reduced by an air stream but might build up
under vacuum testing.
(vi) The growth of oxide on freshly produced surfaces is inhibited by vacuum.
The features involved in (i) and (ii) support the concept of vacuum testing
because they lead to a closer simulation of the erosion of rotor blades where the impact
action is likely to be caused by blading striking the dust tangentially as it passes
axially. The absence of air (iii) eliminates the possibility that aerodynamic deflection
of the particles could cause experimental artefacts in anything short of a fully
simulative trial. Concentration (iv) usually has a relatively small effect on the degree
of erosion and published data7 indicate that a range of ~40/1 in concentration
changes erosion by a factor of only 50%. Tests on a titanium alloy and steel to deter-
mine whether the effect is the same under vacuum confirm that the change in erosion
is small (see Fig. 3). In the absence of a meaningful measure of the dust per unit
volume of air, concentration is defined as weight impacting unit area per second. Two

-+ 125-150 /hum at 1100 ft.lsec

3 +
2 lo- f 4
0
0 t;65-150Am at 800 ft./%x
0

e
w

0.51 I i I 1
0.001 CA01 0.1 1 10

Dust concentration (g/cm2 secf

Fig. 3. Influence of dust concentration on erosion.

sizes of quartz dust were used to determine whether the numerical concentration of
particles was important, but it can be seen that this made no apparent difference.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to test the finer dust at concentrations greater
than 0.016 glcm2/s because it could not be induced to drop any faster due to its poor
flow characteristics. It should be noted that tests in this rig are usually at 0.012
glcrn=~s, except for some of the dusts sma.ller than 25 pm, which are very difficult to
deliver and can only be tested at low concentrations. Tests were also made to deter-
mine whether the periodic impaction occurring in a whirling arm has any effect on the
erosion/time characteristics of metals and plastics. However, the resulting curves
(Fig. 4) exhibit types of incubation behaviour similar to that for air blast testing, i.e.
a relatively small non-linearity for metals but pronounced deposition followed by
steady-state erosion for resilient plastic+.

WeraP,16 (1970) 447-465

 It is difficult to devise suitable experimental tests to establish the significance
of (v) and (vi), but some confidence in the technique can he obtained by the quanti-
tative comparison between vacuum erosion test data and data from the literaturtt
shown in Table I. It can be seen that the vacuum test gives data that are consistently
similar to those for comparable tests in air, and the biggest deviations are equivalent
to a relatively small difference in velocity. It is particularly encouraging to note that
the data are relatively close to figures derived from engine trials.

-12 -
, Cobalt alloy
x

4 I I I I J
0 2 4 6 R 10

VVeight O! quartz Impacted !g)

‘l~.\l31,1~ I

Hotor of a 45 h.p. engine tested with o--74 pm quartz x.5

Rotor of a 60 h.p. engine tested with 14 ,um quartz t.15 I”,:;*
Steel tested with o-74 ,um quartz at 830 ft./s and 40‘ 3.’ (::7)
Steel tested with 200-300 ,um quartz at 350 ft./s and 90’ o.g--l.O (1.06)
Nimonic go tested with 60-120 pm quartz at 420 ft./s and go’ L.E (I.21
Titanium alloy tested with 60-120 pm quartz at 420 ft./s and 90~ I.0 (1.2)
hnnealed aluminium tested with 60-130 ym SiC at 500 ft./s and 20’ ’ .5
.Muminium tested with 2x0 pm Sic at 924 ft./s and 20“ I:;;
1.7
Glass tested with 2x0 fcm alumina at 354 ft./s and 90’ 40 (25)
Glass tested with 127 pm Sic at 500 ft./s and go” 55 (67)
6061-o Aluminium tested with 330 ,um SiC at 300 ft./s and 20’ 0.43 (1.1)
-..__ .._ _ _..
* Data in brackets pertain to NGTE vacuum erosion tests using relevant sizes and types of abrasive.

iv&w, I6 (1970) 447-465

PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BE~VIOUR IN EROSION PROCESSES 453

From the above considerations, it is suggested that the whirling arm vacuum
technique gives a reasonable simulation of the processes of erosion, and the simplifi-
cation involved by the elimination of air does not apparently cause any additional
experimental artefact.

EFFECTS OF VELOCITY FOR DIFFERENT MATERIALS AND DUSTS

In the study of different types of materials, tests were made over a range of
velocities because of the differing applications, and it is convenient to use the re-
sulting curves for material comparisons. As in the earlier works, 125-150 pm quartz
was used, and the quantity impacted was varied to suit the velocity and materials so
that the weight losses were approximately the same for each test. This technique was
used to reduce the likelihood of the results being unduly influenced by an unexpected-
ly large incubation period for the soft materials at low velocities. Curves showing the
volumetric erosion of several materials (compositions are given in Table II) recently

TABLE II
MATERIAL CONIPOSITION AND PROPERTIES

Material Composition Diamond V&metric

pyramid erosionat
hardness 90’ and 8oo ft./s
&lmm21 (c+/k.s)
Silicon nitride (hot pressed) 1800 0.2

I I O/J chromium steel (from 0.16 C, II Cr, 0.6 MO, 0.25 Nb,
forged ingot) 0.3 V, bal. Fe 355 0.6
Nickel alloy (forged bar) 20 Cr, 2.5 Ti, 1.5 Al, 20 Co, 5 Fe,
1.5 Si, 1.0 Mn, bal. Ni so7 0.6
Flame-plated tungsten WC particles bonded with r59’,
carbide (0.002 in. on steel) Co 1050 0.85
Titanium alloy (sheet) IT Sn, 6 Zr, 2.5 Al. bal. Ti 340 X.0
Aluminium alloy (sheet) 1.2 Ni, 1.5 Mg. 2.5 Cu, 1.0 Fe,
0.06 Ti, 0.2 Si, bal. Al ‘5.5 2.0

Cobalt alloy (cast) 33 Cr, 13 W, 2.5 C, bal. Co 600 2.2

Type 66 nylon - 2.3
Polypropylene - 3.1
Glass-reinforced nylon 3oy0 glass fibres in type 66 nylon - 7.0
Carbon-reinforced nylon 25% carbon fibres in type 66 nylon - 7.0
Magnesium alloy
(extruded bar) 1.5 Mn, bal. Mg 37 13
Fibreglass 70% glass fibres in epoxy resin - 53
Glass (annealed) Soda glass 450 IO0

tested in the whirling arm rig are given in Fig. 5, together with an 11% chromium
steel, which is treated as a reference datum partly because of its wide use in engines
and partly because of the large amount of erosion data available. It can be seen that
the power law relation between erosion and velocity holds very well for these ma-
terials, and it is interesting to note that a material as brittle as silicon nitride is
apparently very good whereas glass is appallingly bad.
Several composite materials were tested in order to examine the interesting
possibilities raised by reinforcement of ductile materials with brittle fibres, and vice

wear, ~6 (1970) 447-465

 G. I’. TILLY. W. SAGE

10.

ALum~nlLIm alloy

Cobalt alloy

b/fill % Chromum

0.1 .

100

Velocity (ft. /xc)

Fig. 5. Velocity dependence of different materials tested with rz5-~50 pm quartz at go’

U-Epoxy
X-G~nss

GLass I
0
0
/ 70% Glas!z
loo- x / 1 Reinforced
. -30 % Glass
Reinforced nylon
A- 25 % Carbon
Reinforced

80 .I. Steel
Reintorced

.Sl
f
E
, ;
”

8
._ l-
8
I;

0.1
100 1000 100 1000

Velocity (ft./secI
Fig. 6. Velocity dependence of composites tested with 125-150 ,um quartz at goO.

Wear, 16 (1970) 447-465

PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR IN EROSION PROCESSES 455

versa. The resuhing curves (Fig. 6) show that reinforcement of type 66 nylon by either
glass or carbon fibres reduces the resistance to erosion, whereas steel particles in an
epoxy resin apparently improve the situation. Tests on the unreinforced epoxy were
a little unsatisfactory because of its extreme fragility, and the results are somewhat
scattered.
Tests on the 11% chromium steel reference material were extended to deter-
mine the extent of the damage caused by different types of abrasive. Unfortunately
it was not possible to obtain a suitable hard dust in the rz5-r5o ,um preferred size
range, and 250-350 pm diamond was tested in lieu. A higher level of erosion resulted,
as would be expected of a harder dust irrespective of size, but the velocity exponent
(2.3) is the same as is usually found for quartz in this type of test (Fig. 7). On the
other hand, 125-150 ,um glass spheres (diamond pyramid hardness of 450 kg/mmz)
exhibited slightly higher exponents (2.4-3.4) and caused more erosion of the aluminium
alloy.

loo-
12%150pm Quartz

10 -

0
Zl
E

5 ‘-
8
I;

Atuminium alloy

0.1'
100 1000 100 100

Velocity (ft./set)
Fig. 7. Effect of velocity and type of abrasive on erosion for go0 impacts.

PARTICLE FRAGMENTATION ON IMPACT

In earlier work it has been suggested that the extent of the damage incurred
by the abrasive particles may be as important as the material properties in deter-
mining the level of the resultant erosion 5. In order to study this in greater detail,
high speed photographs were taken of the impact process. An image converter
camera was sited so that the particles could be photographed hitting the target face
in profile, the technique being as described by GOODWIN~~. Initial experiments were
carried out with a simplified system in which 3ooo-pm glass spheres were fired from
a compressed air gun against a fixed plate target. The photographs (Fig. 8a and b)

Wear. 16 (1970) 447-465

showed that the spheres disintegrated in a manner superficially similar to a water
drop of similar size. The glass fragments appeared to flow across the surface in a
radial wash travelling at a speed greater than that of the initial approach velocity
(vo), i.e. at -1.7 ~0. This wash ran ahead of the bulk of the material, which dilated
radially at 0.4-o.5 X/O.
Subsequent examination of damage to the target (Figs. 8c and d)
showed that impacts at 90~ caused a primary i~ldentation of diameter z/3 do, where
do is the impacting sphere diameter. There is a pronounced region around this, of
diameter 3 do, composed of radial scarring. Closer scrutiny of these scars showed that
they are very similar to the type of damage that can he caused by irregular quartz to
both ductile and brittle materials (Figs. 9a, b, c). Pronounced gouging had occurred
in the direction of impact, and material had been extruded to the sides to form
vulnerable ridges, For glancing impacts at 30” to the surface, the sphere disintegrated
in a similar manner, but the wash was in the direction of impact covering an area

If'f?UV,
r6 (1970) _147-.46j
PARTICLE AND MATERLAL BEHAVIOUR LN EROSION PROCESSES 457

Fig. 9. Types of damage and debris caused by erosion.

approximated by a 40~ arc of diameter 6 do (Fig. Sb). In both cases, it was clear that
disintegration occurred in less than 20 ,usec and the flow process lasted for at least
70 psec.
Having established the pattern of behaviour for a simplified system, similar
types of photographs were taken for impact of irregular quartz in the whirling arm rig.
As for the static tests, the camera was arranged to view parallel to the target face
with the impact process illuminated from belowr5. A circular. glass window was fitted
to the underside of the testing chamber to facilitate the illu~nation and the camera

Wear, 16 (1970) 447-465

458 G. P. TILLP, W. SAGE

was sited above. A near normal impact angle was used to avoid having the dust feeder
and oncoming particles obscure the view. Impacts of irregular quartz particles against
the rotating specimens were photographed to show the disintegration process (Fig. IO).
In comparison with the glass spheres, the quartz particles tend to present irregular
faces to the impact surface and break up so that larger fragments are involved and
scarring is non-symmetrical. It was not possible to photograph the whole process
because the arm rotated past the viewing area too rapidly, i.e. in less than 15 psec.

0 2 4 6 Jo set

1 NORMAL IMPACT

0 2 4 6 ~.‘sec
Fig, x0. 500-850 j~“m quartz impacting at 000 ft. jsec

(excluding fibres)

Wart.? before

8)
2 d5&Size at 50 % distributKx!
c
”
Y
au 0
0 50 100 150 200

Optical measure of partlcle diameter +rn)

Fig. 1 I. Size distribution for quartz and target chippings after erosion tests at 800 ft./set and 90’

However, during the first 6-8 pusecof the sequence, it appears that rebound velocities
for the “cloud” of fragments are N 0.3 ~0. The radial dilation of the cloud is at 0.3.-0.4
V().
Erosion debris was collected in the catchment shown in Fig. I, and sizes of the
quartz particles were analysed to determine the extent of fr~entation under differ-
ent impact conditions. For tests with quartz against an 11% chromium steel, it was

&V&art
16 (1970) 447-465
PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR IN EROSION PROCESSES 459

shown that the degree of fragmentation is dependent on the initial particle size and
the velocity of impact. In addition, it appears that fragmentation also occurs for very
different target materials, e.g. fibreglass and nylon (Fig. II). The size distributions
were also measured for the chippings eroded from the target material and it was
found that the mean size (&,o as defined in Fig. II) tends to be several times smaller
than the eroding particle. In the case of the reinforced epoxies, comparatively large

Epoxy at 800 lt./sec

(excluding fibres)
5
T
3 Steel at 1000 ft./set- / -1

2 Nyton
at 800
ft./%?c
I
1

.i 50’_!c
"O- 100 200
1

300

Impacting partick size (pm)

Fig. IZ. Influence of quartz size on size of target chippings for go’ impacts.

Steel at K)CXJftlsec
x

Impacting quartz size (rm)

Fig. 13. Influence of initial size on the degree of fragmentation of quartz for go0 impacts.

lengths of the fibres tended to be removed without any epoxy adhering to them
(Fig. 9d). Under these circumstances, the size distributions were measured for matrix
material and the fibres were excluded. Consideration of the effect of increasing sizes
of quartz shows that O&O for the chippings also increases (Fig. 12). The extent of the
particle fragmentation was expressed as the change in Cc L&O(where C, is a correction
factor to compensate for differing shapes of size distribution curve as described in
 G. P. I’ILLY, w. SAGE

Glass at 420 ft./%x

6
Fibreglass at 420 WSCC

Nylon at 800 ft.lsec

Steel at 800 Wsec

I
100 1000
Particle size (,urrd
Fig. I 4. Influence of quartz size on erosion of different types of mat&&

A Epoxy at 800 ftlsec

0 Nylon at 800 wsec
x Steel at 1000 ftlsec

1000 1 impacts at 90’

Particle size (pm)

Fig. 15. Influence of quartz size on number of target chippings.

ref. 5) with respect to initial size as shown in Fig. 13. It can be seen that no fragmen-
tation occurs for particles smaller than a threshold size which is dependent upon the
target material. For nylon and steel there is also a saturation level where fragmen-

wea+‘,16 (1970)447-465
PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR IN EROSION PROCESSES 461

tation is independent of particle size, but no such behaviour is exhibited by the more
limited data for fibreglass. These curves appear to have the same shapes as exhibited
by the erosion/size curves, of which typical examples are shown in Fig. 14.
Using the measurements of the chip sizes together with the values of erosion
caused by the different sizes of quartz, it is possible to deduce figures for the averaged
number of impacts (n) to produce a chip. Curves of n against the impacting particle
size for steel, fibreglass and nylon, given in Fig. 15, show that numerous impacts are
required for small particles (~25 ,um) to produce a chip, whereas single particles
around 200 ,um apparently cause several chips.

DISCUSSION

The data for the erosiveness of different materials show that there is little
scope for any substantial improvement over the engineering ahoys in current usage,
i.e. steel and nickel and titanium alloys. The cobalt alloy is very disappointing because
it is one of the best materials under rain erosion as well as being generally good in
other situations involving wear. The flame-plated tungsten carbide coating is also
poorer than anticipated, although giving a Z/I improvement over the steel in glancing
impacts. Unfortunately, its thickness was only 0.002 in., due to limitations imposed by
aerodynamic features of axial blading, and this may be inadequate to develop full
effectiveness. The brittle materials show very different levels of erosion resistance,
glass and fibreglass being extremely poor whereas silicon nitride is apparently very
good. However, the glass was relatively soft (see Table II), whereas the hot pressed
silicon nitride was specially prepared and is extremely hard and dense. Additional
tests confirmed the good properties of silicon nitride for quartz sizes of up to 500 pm
at 800 ft./s and at smaller sizes for up to IOOOft./s, and it appeared that pitting was
very shallow and no cracking could be observed. For bigger particle sizes and higher
velocities, failure occurred to the extent that the test pieces disintegrated.
The composite materials are generally rather poor. Nylon, which is one of the
best available plastics, deteriorates by about 4/1when reinforced by glass or carbon
fibres. On the other hand, a commercial variety of epoxy resin was found to be one of
the poorest materials erosion-wise, but a very substantial improvement was obtained
with steel powder reinforcement although it was still ten times worse than the solid
steel. Unfortunately, there are insufficient data to draw any generalised conclusions
on the behaviour of composites at this stage.
In considering the erosion of different materials many attempts have been
made to relate the behaviour to some simple mechanical property such as yield or
rupture strength, and it is a popular contention that increase in hardness will improve
the erosion resistance. However, values for the volumetric erosion of a representative
selection of metals and plastics under normal impact are listed in order of performance
in Table II and it can be seen that there is no apparent relationship with hardness.
With more detailed studies of erosion, it has become increasingly clear that it is a
rather complex process involving more than one mechanism so that it is unlikely that
any single property alone can be used as a guide to material evaluation, e.g. glass
exhibits brittle cracking under go0 impacts but there is a mixture of radial and sub-
surface cracks and gouging for glancing impacts as shown in Fig. g(c). In order to
account for a situation involving two processes, it was suggested that the contributions

Wear, 16 jr970) 447-465

462 G. I’. TILLY, W. SAGE

made by the brittle and ductile components* be separated so that they can be related
to ductility independentlyd. This type of approach has the merit that it can correlate
materials having different susceptibility to glancing and normal impact.
In an attempt to extend this approach to explain some of the erosion behaviour
described in this paper, the surface topography was studied during the initial stages of
damage. For the brittle materials the mechanism of removal appears to be similar to
that postulated by FINNKE~~,who suggested that Hertzian stresses set up on impact
would lead to cracking. Photographs of normal (90”) impacts of r5o;um quartz against
glass have demonstrated the presence of cracks radiating from the point of impact.
some being joined by sub-surface cracks 4, but having shapes different from those
described by FINNIE, i.e. like the mantle of a cone. There seems little doubt that
subsequent impacts will remove material and possibly cause additional cracking so
that erosion proceeds at a very rapid rate. However, a mixture of ductile and brittle
damage can occur for glancing impacts, as shown in Fig. 9(c). For predominantly
ductile materials the situation is more complex, because impaction causes pronounced
pitting and extrusion of material in the direction of motion of the particle to form a
hump or lip. During this process, heat is almost certainly generated. Temperature
rises of as much as rgo”C have been measured during erosionr7, and feldspar has been
found to form glassy deposits under conditions where the gas stream temperature was
as much as 700°C below the softening temperature 18. In addition to the pitting action,

3.0
125-1504m
Glass spheres p

Impact angle (degrees)

Fig. 16. Angle dependence for an aluminium alloy tested at 800 ft./set.

considerable secondary damage occurs as fragements of the particle cause the radial
or secondary ‘scars’ shown in Fig. 8. It is possible that this secondary damage may be
largely responsible for the 90” component of erosion usually exhibited by ductile
materials. The importance of the role played by secondary damage was demonstrated
by tests on an aluminium alloy comparing the behaviour of 1~5-150 ,um irregular
quartz with the softer glass spheres of the same size (Fig. 16). The quartz caused a
slight peak in erosion for glancing impact whereas the spheres caused less damage in
glancing impact but very much more for normal erosion. It is suggested that this

* Xn this paper, the term brittle refers to the type of erosion exhibited by glass where maximum
damage occurs for go” impact. Ductile erosion is characterised by a maximum for glancing impacts
at about 20~ to the surface.

Wear, 16 (19701 447-465

PARTICLE AND MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR IN EROSION ~~ocmsm 463

behaviour is due to the differing magnitudes of secondary damage for the two types
of particle. In glancing impact, the hard and sharp quartz causes more damage than
the softer rounded spheres because the primary impact plays a more important role
than the radial wash. In normal impact very little damage would be anticipated for
either type of particle, because the ductile nature of the material reduces the likelihood
of Hertzian type cracking. However, the secondary erosion plays a major role because
the fragments are able to gouge the surface at the more damaging glancing angles.
The spheres may break into a larger number of fragments than the tougher quartz
particles of the same mean size and produce signific~tly more damage. Thus, the
apparently brittle damage incurred by ductile materials under normal impact may be
caused by a second-stage process, and the particle friability and mechanism of dis-
integration is all-important in determining the extent of this secondary erosion.
The study of the fragmentation behaviour of irregular quartz may be summa-
rised as follows:
(i) Small particles do not break up but require many impacts to remove
chippings from the target surface.
(ii) Increase in particle size results in increasing fragmentation, but fewer
impacts are required to remove material and the resultant chips are bigger.
(iii) Earlier work5 has shown that ~agmentation increases with velocity of
impact.
These observations lead to a tentative explanation of the effects of particle size
and velocity for ductile materials. Small particles (ro-zo pm) that do not break up
cause comparatively little damage because the pitting is uniformly small and the
mechanism is not aided by second-stage damage. For increasing particle size, frag-
mentation increases and more damage is caused per impact until a saturation level is
reached at which the damage varies with particle size so that the erosion caused by
unit mass of abrasive is constant. There is presumably another threshold when the
particles are individua~y big enough to cause distortion or whole scale fracture of the
specimen, this type of behaviour usually being termed foreign object damage.
As far as the velocity exponent is concerned, there is now considerable evidence
to show that it is always close to 2.3 for rzg-r5o-pm quartz particles against a wide
variety of materials. It is suggested that it exceeds the value of 2.0 indicated by
arguments based on kinetic energy, because not all the impact energy is useddirectly
in removing material and there is an increasing amount of secondary damage at
higher velocities. The precise relation between fragmentation and velocity is not yet
clear, but it does seem that there is a threshold velocity to cause fragmentation, and
approximation of the cont~bution by the secondary mechanism to a simple power
law will tend to give an exponent (01) greater then 2.0 so that the total resulting
erosion will also have 01 >z.o. Smaller particles that do not break up have a=2.0
(ref. 5)) whilst the glass spheres exhibit a higher exponent (LX2.4-3.4 in Fig. 7) due to a
different relation between fragmentation and velocity.

CONCLUSIONS

The behaviour of a variety of materials under erosion by irregular quartz

particles has been studied using a vacuum whirling arm. Data for a test using x25-150-
pm quartz at a range of velocities confirm earlier work indicating that erosion is
governed by a simple power law dependence having an exponent of about 2.3 for
materials as diverse as plastics, metals and ceramics.
Evaluation of the volumetric erosion for norm9 impact at 800 ft./s shows that
the best and worst materials differ by almost three orders of magnitude. Materials
recommended by virtue of their good wear and rain erosion properties, e.g. flame-
plated tungsten carbide coatings (on steel) and a cobalt-based alloy, exhibited poor
resistance to sand erosion. A nickel-based alloy and an rr”;, chromium steel, both of
which are commonly used in gas turbines, have excellent erosion properties, and there
seems to be little prospect of improving substantially on either of these. Keinforcemen t
of plastics can either improve or worsen their properties, depending on the nature of
the reinforcing materials.
The mechanism of erosion has been studied in terms of the impact and frag-
mentation behaviour of irregular quartz and soft glass spheres. It has been shown that
the particles break up on impact, and erosion of ductile type materials, can occur in
two stages, ‘~‘iz.(i) the surface is pitted and material extruded to form a lip or hump,
and (ii) particle fragments impact at secondary sites causing additional damage
which may form a radial pattern around the pit. Using this model, an attempt has
been made to explain some of the phenomena of erosion and it is suggested that
fragmentation behaviour of the particles is most important in determining the extent
of damage. Examination of the particles and target chips after impact showed that
small particles do not break up but require many impacts to produce a chip. Increase
in particle size results in fragmentation but involves few impacts per chip and
produces bigger chips.

ACKNOWLEDGEI\lENTS

The whirling arm rig was developed by J. E. Goouwr~ and particle size analyses
were carried out by J. A. Radley (Laboratories) Ltd. under Mintech contracts.
The high speed photography was by Messrs. John Hadland Ltd. and by CUSP,
British Crown copyright. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office.

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