Long-term investigation of erosion behaviors on metal surfaces by impingement of liquid droplet with high-speed

Understanding wall-thinning erosion of pipelines in nuclear or steam power plants is critically important for predicting and preventing human and material accidents. Wall thinning of pipelines in power plants occurs mainly by flow acceleration corrosion (FAC), cavitation erosion (C/E), and liquid droplet impingement erosion (LIE). Wall thinning by FAC and C/E has been well-investigated; however, LIE in plant industries has rarely been studied due to the experimental difficulty of setting up a long injection of highly pressurized air. We designed a long-term experimental system for LIE and investigated the behavior of LIE for three kinds of materials (A106B, SS400, A6061). The main control parameter was the air-water ratio (α), which was defined as the volumetric ratio of water to air (0.79, 1.00, 1.72). To clearly understand LIE, the spraying velocity (v) of liquid droplets was controlled larger than 160 m/s and the experiments were performed for 15 days. The surface morphology and hardness of the materials were examined every five days. Since the spraying velocity of liquid droplets and their contact area (A_c) on specimens were changed according to the air-water ratio, we analyzed the behavior of LIE for the materials using the impulse (I), which was defined as I = (α × v) / A_c. Finally, the prediction equations (the erosion rate) for the LIE of the materials were determined for the air-water ratios.