An Investigation of the Low Velocity/ Low Concentration Solid Particle Erosion of a Structural Mild Steel Using a Centripetal Erosion Tester

Mild steel is the material that is most commonly used in the construction of pneumatic conveyor pipelines. Consequently, the resistance of mild steels to erosion damage by solid particle impingement is of considerable interest to designers of such equipment. This paper describes an investigation into erosion of one mild steel. A centripetal erosion tester developed at The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, The University of Greenwich, London, UK was used to investigate the erosion resistance of this material. This device uses a high speed rotating disc to accelerate the particles to the necessary velocity so that they strike a series of target specimens. A series of conditions was specified which were closely comparable to those seen in pneumatic conveyor operation in industry. The test results obtained displayed no peak in the graphs of erosion rate verses angle of impingement. It was concluded that this was due to the manner in which the test data was manipulated for analysis purposes. A power law model was fitted to the erosion data. Some useful trends were discovered in the test data and they are presented in this paper.