Erosive wear of selected metals in coal washing environments

AbstractA slurry erosive wear apparatus developed by the authors has been used to test the erosive wear behaviour of selected metals in coal washing environments.The erosive wear test machine was employed to determine the effects of (1) carbon content in carbon steels, (2) chromium content in alloy steels, and (3) corrosion of aqueous solutions on the erosive wear behaviour of metals. The test results revealed that the carbon content in annealed carbon steels slightly affects the erosive wear resistance of metals, while the increase in chromium content of alloy steels apparently improves the erosive wear resistance of metals and, when a corrosion inhibitor is added to slurries, the erosive wear rates of metals reduces significantly.Two types of micro‐mechanism were deduced from the observation of eroded surfaces by SEM: (1) local exfoliation, and (2) micro‐cutting. The corrosion inhibitor can alter the micro‐mechanism from local exfoliation to micro‐cutting. The analyses show that the erosive wear of selected metals in slurries results from the synergistic effects of wear by solid particles plus fluid corrosion.