Abstract
Erosion of ceramic materials often limits their use in many structural applications. This paper reviews knowledge on the erosive wear of ceramics mainly in terms of the mechanical properties of a target material.
Two major erosion mechanisms are the fracture mechanism and the scratching mechanism. These erosion mechanisms are affected by the mechanical properties of a target material, such as the hardness and the fracture toughness, as well as the erosion conditions such as the mechanical properties of an impacting particle, the impact velocity and the impact angle.
The erosive wear rate(V) is largely dependent on the ratio of the hardness of the target material(Hvt) to that of the impact particle(Hvp). When Hvt/Hvp<1, the most part of the erosive wear is caused by the fracture mechanism. When Hvt/Hvp>1, on the other hand, the erosion mechanism is mainly the scratching. When the erosive wear is caused by the fracture mechanism, V is related to the fracture toughness of the target material(Kct), as expressed by the equation VocKctb, where b is a negative number. In other words, the larger the hardness and fracture toughness of the target material are, the better the target material is as the anti-erosion material.
