QUOTE FORMULAES In fluid bearing pipes, a form of attack due to constituents of the internal flu ids occurs, and

this is referred to as erosion. This attack may be described as occurring as a consequence of the constituent elements of the fast flowing fluid s on the surface of the component bearing it. This attack is commonly referred t o as erosion and it has been a source of concern for all industries where transp ortation of fluids through pipes is involved. Erosion occurs through processes w hich can be divided into two namely; persistent plastic deformation of surface d ue to collisions finally resulting in bits of material separation from the paren t component. The second process involves the abrasive materials acting like cutt ing tools, and gradually chipping away at the material surface. In working compo nents, these processes are found to occur simultaneously. When erosion occurs th rough plastic deformation, the particles travelling at a low velocity for instan ce, deform the component surface only by a minute portion as compared to their d iameter, even this would depend on the hardness of the particle wrt the impeding surface, and also if the particle breaks up upon impact. As flow velocity incre ases, the depth caused by these craters increase to many times the diameter [J. S. RIN EHART AND J. PEARSON, Rehaviour of Metals under impulsive Loads, Am. Sm. Metals, Cleveland, Ohio, 1954. ] of the impeding particle and also heating of the affect ed surface. Bitter (1962), explains that when a body which can only be elastical ly deformed strikes a flat surface, stress concentrations are generated within t he flat body, with a maximum occurring at the centre of the centre of the projec ted area, at a distance of about half the radius of this projected area. Collisi ons which result only in elastic deformations below the strength of the componen t, will produce no wear. But, if the elastic limit of the material is exceeded, plastic deformation begins to develop at the region in which the stress is maxim um. Continuous impact by abrasive particles, will eventually lead to a plastical ly deformed surface. The resulting condition leads to an increase in the elastic limit of the component surface, which continuously increases until it equals th e strength of the component surface. If however in this condition, the limit is exceeded, the material surface will finally buckle and fragmentation of its surf ace will occur. SPATH (1951) also carried out experiments to authenticate the d escription of erosion by plastic deformation proposed by Bitter (1962). Every year, millions of pounds are lost, when plants have to be shut down, to re place these preheater parts abeg verify ohh. A lot of research has been carried out in this field, and a lot of experimental data presented, all giving conditions at which erosion might be found to increas e exponentially. De Haller (1939), carried out experiments on this theory, and d iscovered that upon examination of these surfaces after impact, showed that for high impingement angles, a flattened and well deformed surface was formed. While for the low impingement angles, a grazed and less distorted surface was formed. While Wellinger (1949), conducted experiments and inferred that erosion as a f unction of impingement angle, had a more profound effect at lower angles for low carbon steel, which is soft and ductile to hardened high-carbon steel, which is brittle. His results showed that the mechanical properties of the component pla yed a huge part in its resistance to erosion. Therefore, impact angle and materi al component should be considered before construction. Many of the mentioned works, have only studied erosion through the setting up of physical apparatus, while the concept of simulation has only just started [find quote and attach], Finnie 1964, studied the impact of erosion on ductile and brittle surfaces using an erosion tester in which he inferred that the particles within the gas stream do not necessarily travel at the same velocity as the gas stream. For the erosi on tester, he estimated after a series of equations that the particle must trave l 1.6m before reaching 91m/sec as compared to the 152m/sec obtainable for air ve locities in the tester. His aim was to solve the particles equation of motion an d from the results, be able to predict its damaging effects on the surface. This

problem associated with the pinpointing the exact velocity of particles, has th erefore resulted in inconclusive data on the full consequences of erosion as onl y the air velocities are mentioned. As it should be mentioned, each particles velo city depends on its size. He finally came to a conclusion from his experiment re sults that the erosion of a surface, is dependent the motion of the particles in the fluid, and also the surface behaviour when struck by the particles. When th ese particles strike surfaces, they roughen them up, leading to increased turbul ence within the fluid. This will then speed up the rate of material/surface remo val. For ductile materials, he was able to find an agreement between available d ata and his experiments with regards to the influence of angle and velocity of i mpact on erosion. Unfortunately, this success was not replicated for brittle com ponents. Find a correlation between this method and current methods in recent times thou gh, experimenter have been able to apply a range of sizes to these particles. Fo r example the south African dudes.. The problem associated with erosion on geome try was first studied in Germany in 1931 in connection with the collection of sm oke and dust particles. The problems of particle impaction with regards to icing on aircrafts was also studied by Taylor, in which Stokes law was used to determ ine particle resistance and occasionally, the experimentally determined drag coe fficients have been used. The only case for which a direct analytical solution a ppears possible is that of flow onto a normal wall with stokes law assumed for t he particle drag and any other case requiring a stepwise solution. If the fluid velocities are known, and the drag forces on the particles are calculated using experimental drag coefficients e.g. Langmuir and Blodgett for spheres, then the impaction of particles onto a given obstacle maybe computed numerically. Erosion has been studied for different parts of the power plat, Smith 13 studied particle impaction with respect to turbine blades, and gives guidance on the si ze of particles which must be removed from a gas stream, to avoid the effect on erosion on surfaces. Finnie points out that a factor not considered in this repo rt is the radial motion of the particles in the blading and the apparent effect of multistage. Bergeron studied erosion of pump runners and proposed model to pr edict erosion on their surfaces. His tests were carried out on the convex face o f the runner, since the leading edge by impact is considered to be negligible in comparison with the erosion by sliding on the blade surfaces. Wahl and Hartstein suggests the use of a spiral highway curve to carry abrasive components. Air is blown tangentially alongside the outside of the bend. For ductile materials, erosion occurs by an effect similar to that obtained by a cutting tool, in which particle erosion effects reaches a maximum at angles of between 20-300 Bitter 1962, proposed a formulae after a well documented experiment, to show the rate of erosion with regards to plastic deformation. Understanding the concept of erosion can be viewed from two points. One the cond ition (velocity, direction and number) of particles in the gas stream, and then the amount of material surface removed can then be calculated.