The Solid Particle Impact Erosion of a Range of Materials Commonly Used in the Construction of Pneumatic Conveyors Using Two Forms of Erosion Testing Device

This paper reports the results obtained from a collaborative test programme to find the erosion resistance of five different materials under conditions of low severity solid particle impingement. The test conditions and materials were chosen to represent situations commonly seen in pneumatic handling facilities. Two forms of erosion tester were used to examine the erosion performance of these materials. One of these was a sand blast type of rig where a pressurised gas is used to accelerate particles through a nozzle to impinge upon a target specimen. The second rig took the form of a centripetal accelerator where a spinning disc is used to accelerate particles against a series of target specimens. The sand blast form of test rig was provided by The Department of Powder Science Technology (POSTEC) at The Telemark Technological Research and Development Centre, Porsgrunn, Norway. The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, University of Greenwich, London, UK provided the centripetal erosion tester. Observations regarding the experimental techniques adopted are also presented. Recommendations regarding the use of these forms of erosion tester are made in this paper. The divergence of particle jets emerging from the two mechanisms of acceleration effected the accuracy of comparisons of results obtained for erosion resistance from the two testers. The relevance of these results to the occurrence of erosion damage in pneumatic conveyor hardware is also discussed.