Effect of Heat Treatment on Erosion Behaviour of Steel

Effect of Heat Treatment on Erosion Behaviour

of Steel
Vyom Agarwal[†]1 [16145066]
Junior Undergraduate, Department Of Metallurgical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi
‑

and pipeline material. The most popular way to

Abstract - The erosion behaviour of a plain carbon
steel, an austenitic stainless steel and a low alloy
steel (in various heat-treated conditions is
considered. An attempt was made to characterise the
erosion behaviour as it relates to the mechanical
properties obtainable in these alloys using
conventional heat treatments. It was found that the
ductility of the steels had a significant effect on
their erosion resistance which increased with
increasing ductility and that hardness, strength,
fracture toughness and impact strength had little
effect on erosion behaviour. The platelet mechanism
of erosion occurred in all the steels tested at all
conditions.
Keywords - Erosion, Steel, Heat Treatment, Erosion
Resistance, SEM Micrographs, Slurry Erosion.
I. INTRODUCTION
EROSION related problems cause serious
financial losses in industries in general Any failure
of a pipeline component results in expensive
repairs, loss of production time, or possibly
harmful environmental effects. Since failure is
usually not predictable due to variable operating
conditions, methods for reducing the erosion and
increasing the lifetime of the pipe including the
development of new steels for pipeline systems are
of interest to these industries. The erosion rate of a
slurry pipeline depends on various factors such as
slurry and solid particle properties, flow rate,
study the effect of the influencing variables and to
understand the erosion mechanisms is to conduct
investigations using laboratory equipment, i.e.
bench-scale test rigs.
Erosion, abrasion, and corrosion are the main
types of damage mechanisms taking place in slurry
equipment and hydraulic components, the main one
being erosion. In order to develop solutions to
minimise the effects of erosion, it is essential to
have a fundamental and comprehensive
understanding of the erosion and tribological
mechanisms involved. The types of erosion bench-
scale test rigs, the mechanisms involved, proposed
models and the parameters affecting the erosion rate
in different steel microstructures are discussed, this
review has been limited to erosion only
II. RELATED WORKS
Recent progress in this area includes the evaluation
of erosion under different erosive conditions using
erosion test rigs is very expensive and time
consuming, especially for the industrial pilot plant
tests. In addition, the results can only be applied to
the same conditions as used in the tests. Hence,
nowadays many investigations have been conducted
to develop a methodology for predicting the erosion
rate from empirical relations for slurry erosion.
Although this approach is ongoing and there is still

[†] vyom.agarwal.met16@iitbhu.ac.in

*This Term Paper is drafted as a part of an Assignment in MT- 305 [Heat Treatment] under aegis of Dr. Vikas Jindal, Department Of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT(BHU) Varanasi.
Effect of Heat Treatment on Erosion Behaviour of Steel

much to achieve before a comprehensive model is hardness alone is not sufficient to improve the
obtained, progress so far is satisfactory. erosion resistance. [‡]

III. BASIC THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

A. Erosion Behaviour and Mechanism

Erosion is the gradual removal of material due to
solid particle impingement and results in a failure of
materials. In erosive wear situation, particles that
are normally entrained in a fluid can impact the
wearing surface. [‡]The load between the particle
and surface results from the momentum and kinetic
energy of the particle. This difference in the loading
situation results in a modification of equation used
to describe the wear, which can be shown by a
simple model for particle impact. [‡]

Fig. 2 - SEM micrograph of the cross-sectioned layers of an

erosion scar. White arrows indicate particle flow direction. (a)
Eroded and deformed layer, (b) sub-surface crack propagation,
(c) fracture of the deformed layer. a´–c´) Schematic
illustrations of the metal removal steps [22].[‡]

Ductility and impact energy also play a major role

Fig. 1 Erosion of Ductile and Brittle Materials
B.Factors Affecting Erosive Wear:-
Generally, hardness is considered the most
important property that affects the erosion
resistance of material [‡]. However, the presence of
unevenly distributed carbides produce high-stress
concentration at carbide-matrix interface, and
continuous impingement of sharp-edged sand
particle on the surface resulted in carbide cracking
and de-cohesion at carbide/austenite interface,
which leads to mass removal [‡]. The increase in
in improving the erosion resistance. Poor ductility
[‡] leads to a tendency for localization of strains and
development of cracks. Foley [‡] proposed that
ductility of the steels have a significant effect on
erosion resistance, which increases with increasing
in ductility. [‡] Therefore, impact energy absorption
should play a significant role in erosion resistance.
From the above discussion, it can be inferred that
optimum hardness and increased ductility and
impact energy after solution treatment plays a
crucial role in improving the erosion resistance.

*This Term Paper is drafted as a part of an Assignment in MT- 305 [Heat Treatment] under aegis of Dr. Vikas Jindal, Department Of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT(BHU) Varanasi.
Effect of Heat Treatment on Erosion Behaviour of Steel

SEM Study of Eroded Samples (Fig 2), It was comprehensive model is obtained, progress so far is
observed that the craters formed during the erosion satisfactory. Erosion resistance increases with
test were wider and deeper in the case of cast an increasing share of pearlite or bainite in the
samples probably due to the removal of carbide microstructure.
particles. The core microstructures of carburized
steels are determined by the low carbon content and V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT [ß]
base hardenability of the carburized steel. The author would like to express his deep gratitude
Depending on quenching rate the low-carbon core towards Dr. Vikas Jindal Professor, Department Of
may transform to ferrite with small of amount of Metallurgical Engineering IIT(BHU) Varanasi, for
pearlite or the core may transform to martensite. encouragement me to undertake this Term Paper.
Due to the direct quenching to the room
temperature, the core was transformed to
martensite, in present work. Low-carbon martensite VI. REFERENCES AND READING LIST [‡]
has higher strength and fracture resistance or
toughness than do ferrite-pearlite microstructures. • R. Hamzah, D.J. Stephenson, J.E. Strutt Erosion of
material used in petroleum production Wear, 186–
This increased strength is necessary to prevent 187 (1995), pp. 493-496
subsurface crack initiation, sometimes referred to as • J.G.A. Bitter A study of erosion phenomena ,Wear,
case crushing. Tempering is the final heat treatment 6 (1963), pp. 169-190,
• Joshua Salik, Donald H. Buckley. Effects of erodant particle
step, which increases toughness slightly and shape and various heat treatments on erosion resistance of
relieves some residual stresses, but case hardness is plain carbon steel. NASA Technical Paper. 1981;1755:1-8.
largely preserved. The major change of the • GR Desale, BK Gandhi, SC Jain. Slurry erosion of ductile
materials under normal impact condition. Wear.
microstructure is the precipitation of transition 2008;264(3-4):322-330.
carbide from the martensite supersaturated with • Alan V Levy, Johnny Yan, Jennifer Patterson. Elevated
carbon by quenching. [‡] temperature erosion of steels. Wear. 1986;108:43-60.
• T. Foley, A. Levy, The erosion of heat-treated steels, Wear
1983;91 (1):45-64.
• I.M. Hutchings, A model for the erosion of metals by
IV. CONCLUSIONS spherical particles at normal incidence, Wear 1981;70 (3):
It was found that the ductility of the steels had a 269-281.
• G. Krauss, Microstructure and Properties of Carburized
significant effect on their erosion resistance which Steels, ASM International, Heat treatment Hand book, Vol. 4,
increased with increasing ductility and that (1991) 832-836.
hardness, strength, fracture toughness and impact
strength had little effect on erosion behavior. The
platelet mechanism of erosion occurred in all the
steels tested at all conditions. in order to minimise
the erosion rate in some special applications,
researchers have used various surface treatments to
enhance the erosion resistance, such
as carburizing hardfacing or ceramic coating or
employed new production methods such as thermo-
mechanical control processing or even
developed new materials like composites
and cermets. Hence, nowadays many investigations
have been conducted to develop a methodology for
predicting the erosion rate from empirical relations
for slurry erosion. Although this approach is
ongoing and there is still much to achieve before a

*This Term Paper is drafted as a part of an Assignment in MT- 305 [Heat Treatment] under aegis of Dr. Vikas Jindal, Department Of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT(BHU) Varanasi.