Influence of Sediment Particle Size on Erosion Rate of AISI 304 Stainless Steel

Slurry erosion is a serious issue and the primary concern for slurry handling machinery because it results in costly failures, downtime, and material replacement costs. Slurry particle sizes are one of the important characteristics that affect slurry erosion, including slurry qualities, service conditions, and material attributes. The present research aims to investigate the erosive wear behavior of the surface of AISI 304 stainless steel samples with varying sizes of sediment particles. To achieve this goal, four different sediment particle sizes, including 400, 500, 600, and 700 µ, were used. Also, to conduct erosive wear test, a simple and inexpensive Slurry Jet Erosion Tester (SJET) was designed and manufactured. Moreover, tests were performed in sand slurry of 8 wt.% with an impingement angle of 90° for two times (60 and 120 min). The results showed that larger sand particles can penetrate the sample surface more deeply than smaller ones. Moreover, the erosion ratio is independent of the test time.