Study of Erosion Wear of Pump Material for Handling Water Ash Slurry

Abstract

Erosion wear is a serious problem that constantly accompanies the operation of the system for hydraulic transportation of solid materials. The consequences are the loss of material (steel); loss of work element’s working capacity, great operational expenses, etc. The choice of new materials for working elements, improvements in construction, and optimization of the slurry flow are all various ways of softening the consequences of erosion wear that reflects on the working life of the hydraulic transportation pump’s elements. The grey cast iron selected as a base material of pumping system. The electroplating technique is used for coating of nickel hard on base material. It is observed that the erosion wear of both coated and uncoated specimens shows inverse proportionality with impact angles being highest at 30º and lowest at 90º.Also the SEM images shows that the wear is mainly due to the scratching phenomenon due to brittle nature of grey cast iron specimens. The erosion wear increases with increase in flow velocities as at high velocities high kinetic energy is available at the surface of the specimen which causes more erosion wear to take place. The erosion pot tester is designed for study of the erosion wear behavior of slurry transportation systems with high concentration.