Mechanisms of material removal during erosion-corrosion of an Al-SiC particle composite

Erosive-corrosive wear behaviour of Al-hard particle composite has been stu died in synthetic mine water plus sand slurry at varying speeds (900 and 60 0 rpm) and at different angles of inclination (0 degrees, 45 degrees and 90 degrees) of the specimen surface with respect to the slurry movement. It h as been noted that the wear rate is significantly higher at normal incidenc e angle and at higher speed as compared to that occurred at lower speed and shallower incidence angle. These may be due to higher degree of normal imp act energy offered by the erodant on the specimen surface in such experimen tal condition. The mechanism of material removal from the specimen surface was examined to be associated with number of subsequent and repetitive stag es. It is observed that interface between alloy and hard particle plays an important role in the process of material removal under synergistic effect of corrosion and erosion. At higher speed and normal impact angle, the part icles also get fractured, fragmented and finally pulled out from the specim en surface which in turn causes significantly higher wear rate. (C) 1999 El sevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.