The plowing erosion of organic coatings by spherical particles

The erosion of a thin coating on a steel substrate due to the Impact of ind ividual steel spheres was analyzed with the purpose of predicting crater si ze, shape, and rebound parameters as a function of incident velocity and an gle. A rigid-plastic theory due to Hutchings et. al. [I.M. Hutchings, R.E. Winter, J.E. Field, Solid particle erosion of metals: the removal of surfac e material by spherical projectiles, Proc. R. Soc. London A 348 (1976) 379] , originally developed fbr infinite substrates, is applied here to an organ ic coating nod compared to a novel elastic-plastic analysis which assumes r igid-plastic theory on incidence, and elastic theory on rebound experiments performed at different angles of attack using a gas gun/high speed photogr aphic setup and measurements of crater shape and size using an optical prof ilometer are compared to the predictions of the theory with good agreement. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.