Erosive Wear Mechanisms of Materials-A Review of Understanding and Progresses.

Erosive wear of materials caused by solid particles leads to severe damage on the surface of structure materials and results in mechanical failures. Erosion has been extensively studied for many years in terms of mechanisms, material properties, and impact dynamics. Since the early 21st century, little progress has been made on the evaluation of surface erosive failure due to multiple impacts of particulate solids. The major difficulty is the enormous number of variables involved in the erosion process. However, the existing theories are only able to take a few of them and end up with many assumptions on the others. In summary, the influential factors on erosion can be classified as impact dynamics (such as velocity and angles), mechanisms of material failures (deformation, cutting, and cracking), and material properties of solids and the surface (hardness, toughness, ductility, and brittleness). In this paper, erosion mechanisms and progress from the existing theories have been reviewed critically, which gives a better understanding of the phenomenon. Based on the review of the influential factors in terms of contributions to the process, proper evaluation methods of the erosion process have been discussed, which leads to further thinking of better assessments.