Erosion under turbulent slurry flow: An experimental determination of particle impact angle, impact direction, and distribution thereof by image processing

Abstract

In turbulent flows, the extent of erosive wear is given by particle impacts caused deviated from nominal flow byturbulent fluctuations. This paper describes an experimental determination of particle impact angle and impactdirection distributions from collective wear scar features by image analysis. A slurry pot is used to produce weardamage on copper in exposure to a dilute slurry of glass beads. Degradation is evaluated by weight loss, andtopography data for the image analysis is acquired by non-contact 3D profilometry. The results reveal that mostof the kinetic energy is transferred by the tangential component of the impact velocity at shallow impact angles,regardless the particle size. Particle impact conditions do not distribute Gaussian and a statistical cut-off angle isestablished.