Solid particle erosion behavior of laminated ceramic structures

doi:10.1016/j.wear.2019.203147

Wear

Volumes 442–443, 15 February 2020, 203147

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2019.203147 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Hybrid laminates have superior mechanical properties owing to surface residual stresses.
•
Hybrid ceramic laminates exhibit a better erosion resistance compared to bulk materials.
•
Eroded volume is directly proportional to the kinetic energy of impinging particles.
•
An accurate characterisation of single particle kinetic energy enabled to model erosion.

Abstract

Often ceramics employed for structural applications have to operate in harsh environments withstanding also solid particle erosion phenomena. Enhanced surface toughness and wear resistance of ceramic components can be achieved by laminated hybrid composites owing to the compressive residual stresses that can be generated into the surface by suitably combining the thermo-physical features of the different materials.

In this work the superior solid particle erosion resistance of symmetrical Al₂O₃ and Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ laminated composites compared to homologous Al₂O₃ bulk material has been experimentally assessed. Furthermore, based on the experimental results an heuristic solid particle erosion model able to correctly predict the erosion rate when testing conditions change has been proposed.

Introduction

Erosion of materials by impacting hard particles is a complex process. It depends on the mechanical properties of both the target and the impaction particles. In particular, ceramics, due to their inherent brittleness, show post impacting cracks which, when they propagate parallel to the surface (lateral cracks), are responsible for material removal. This process causes surface damage which is responsible of the erosive wear and strength degradation. This response to such exposure conditions is particularly crucial for ceramics developed for structural applications and models describing the erosive wear behaviour must be provided to define their reliability in service. The behaviour of a ceramic target depends on its microstructure and material parameters. The erosion behavior of some structural ceramics (i.e. Si₃N₄, MgO, SiC, Al₂O₃, Al₂O–Zr₂O₃ composite, LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉–Al₂O₃) has been described [[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]] and some models proposed [7,8].

Additional results from studies carried out on several ceramics and the relationship between microstructural and mechanical properties of both the target and the erodent particles, in different experimental conditions, as well as theoretical analysis can be found in literature [[9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]].

However, although it has been demonstrated that a proper design of laminated hybrid composites can lead to structures which exhibit higher surface toughness [[17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]] and wear resistance [18,25], to our knowledge there has been no study, so far, on solid particle erosion behavior of laminated structural ceramics.

In such hybrid laminates a compressive residual stress can be generated into the surface by combining the advantageous characteristics of the different materials involved, thereby improving the overall mechanical behavior of the system.

This goal can be achieved exploiting the differences in thermal-physical properties (i.e. different sintering rates or Coefficients of Thermal Expansion (CTE)) among the laminae of dissimilar materials utilized in the process.

The aim of this work is to evaluate whether laminated ceramics, in which compressive surface stresses were generated by symmetrical lamination of layers made of Al₂O₃ and Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ composite, have superior erosion resistance than that of the homologous stress-free material.

Based on the obtained results, a model which can describe the erosion of hard particles is proposed. The importance of this study lies in the fact that these hybrid structures can be used in developing components which deal with transport of very erosive powders (i.e. sand, coal, ashes, etc.) and cyclones for powder or dust separation in oil refinery and cement plants.

Section snippets

Preparation of materials

As afore mentioned, it has been highlighted that laminated structures exhibit superior mechanical and tribological properties [[18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25]]. This is due to the compressive residual stresses induced on the surfaces by the difference in thermo-physical properties of the materials the different layers are made of.

To reach the goal of having layered structures with compressive residual stresses at the surface we used layers of alumina and alumina-zirconia

Microstructure

The densities (ρ) measured for A/AZ, AA and MA samples were 4.27 ± 0.01 g/cm³, 3.95 ± 0.01 g/cm³ and 3.89 ± 0.01 g/cm³, respectively. These values correspond to relative densities (ρ_t) equal to 96.7% (A/AZ), 99.0% (AA) and 97.5% (MA), respectively. The slight higher porosity (3.3%) of the A/AZ sample is mainly due to the AZ layers which are less dense than the pure alumina layers.

Fig. 2 shows the microstructures of the surface of laminated and monolithic samples.

It is quite evident that

Discussion and conclusions

The aim of this work was to answer two different questions:

1.
Do hybrid laminated structures containing compressive residual stresses at the surface withstand solid particles impact better than stress free materials?
2.
Can the model, previously proposed in order to correlate erosion rate to impacting kinetic energy of erodent particles, be confirmed by experiments carried out with new and more precise devices to measure the speed and the kinetic energy of the impacting particles?

Regarding the first

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The work at RSE has been partially financed by the Research Fund for the Italian Electrical System in compliance with the Decree of Minister of Economic Development April 16, 2018.

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Solid particle erosion behavior of laminated ceramic structures

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Preparation of materials

Microstructure

Discussion and conclusions

Declaration of competing interest

Acknowledgements

Wear

Wear

Wear

Acta Mater.

Wear

Wear

Wear

J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.

J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.

Wear

Powder Technol.

Appl. Math. Comput.

J. Mater. Process. Technol.

Ceram. Int.

Wear

Precis. Eng.

Erosion damage in glass and alumina

J. Am. Ceram. Soc.

Strength degradation of hot-pressed silicon nitride due to erosion by sharp particle impact

Effect of material parameters on the erosion resistance of brittle materials

J. Mater. Sci.

Mechanical properties and solid particle erosion behavior of LaMgAl11O19–Al2O3 ceramic at room and elevated temperatures

J. Am. Ceram. Soc.

Mechanical properties and solid particle erosion behavior of LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉–Al₂O₃ ceramic at room and elevated temperatures