Erosion Dependency of Various Types of Non-Metallic Materials on Impact Velocity

Abstract The use of non-metallic materials in industries such as oil and gas and water injection systems has recently gained significant attention driven by environmental concerns and the high costs of metallic materials. Many of these applications expose these materials to damage due to erosive environments with fluids containing solid particles. Despite their popularity, limited studies have focused on the erosion behavior of non-metallic materials. Historically, the impact velocity of particles on the material surface is known to have a significant effect on the erosion ratio of metallic materials, and the erosion ratio follows a power law correlation with the impact speed of particles. In limited studies on non-metallic materials available in the literature, similar behavior has been observed. Most of these studies also suggest a power law correlation between erosion ratio and impact velocity, however, the velocity exponent differs for each type of non-metallic material tested. This work aims to conduct a comprehensive study to investigate the erosion behavior of several non-metallic material types including polymer, thermoplastic, and epoxy to understand the effect of impact velocity on the erosion behavior of these materials. To achieve this goal, dry sand impingement tests are conducted at various impact velocities of 20 to 80 m/s at three different impact angles of 45°, 60°, and 90°. These particle velocities were determined by correlating them with the corresponding carrier fluid velocity, utilizing particle image velocimetry (PIV) results. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and particle size analysis indicated that the sand particles employed in this study are sharp with an average size of 100 μm. These particles are used to erode Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), High-density polyethylene (HDPE), glass-reinforced Epoxy (GRE), and Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride (CPVC). Based on the previous studies conducted by prior researchers, the erosion ratio of polymer, thermoplastic, and epoxy materials varies with the impact velocity with the exponent of 1.4 to 5 in the proposed power law correlation. However, current experimental data illustrates that the velocity exponent for these materials is higher, and they differ from 2 to 4. Specifically, it is observed that the erosion ratio of GRE and HDPE changes with the impact velocity with a higher exponent as compared to metallic materials. On the other hand, the velocity exponents were in the same range as metallic materials for PPS and CPVC. This information is important when each of these materials is considered for various design applications. Moreover, when exposed to an erosive environment it is important to be able to predict their erosivity or erosion resistance to prevent failure. This study helps provide insight and further information to improve semi-mechanistic/semi-empirical models that can predict such phenomena.

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