A Study of Damage on the Pipe Flow Materials Caused by Solid Particle Erosion

Wall thinning can be classified into three types: flow-accelerated corrosion, cavitation erosion and solid particle erosion. This article presents a study of solid particle erosion, which frequently causes damages to power plants' pipe system. Unlike previous studies, this study uses a mechanism to make solid particles in a fluid flow collide with pipe materials in underwater condition. Experiment is conducted in three cases of velocity according to solid-water ratio using the three types of the materials of A106B, SS400, and A6061. The experiments were performed for 30 days, and the surface morphology and hardness of the materials were examined for every 7 days. Based on the velocity change of the solid particles in a fluid flow, the surface changes, the change in the amount of erosion, the erosion rate and the variation in the hardness of carbon steel and aluminum family pipe materials can all be determined. In addition, factor based erosion rates are verified and a wall-thinning relation function is suggested for the pipe materials