Case study: Abrasive capacity of Limnoperna fortunei (golden mussel) shells on the wear of 3 different steel types

Abstract

The impact of particles suspended in the water is responsible for the wear of mechanical surfaces in hydraulic systems. The characteristics and concentrations of these particles in the flow directly influence the intensity of the abrasion processes. Within this context, knowledge of the abrasive power of a particle is of great importance. It is known that an invasive species, known as golden mussel shell, has become embedded in several hydroelectric plants of the South and Southeast of Brazil, provoking an increase of the wear caused by shells that pass through the hydraulic system. In this context, the abrasive capacity of ground golden mussel shells on the three metallic materials used in the labyrinth component of the hydraulic turbines was analyzed. To determine the wear pattern and the relationship of the specific wear coefficient of the material (k), due to the increased concentration of golden mussel shell, micro-scale abrasive wear tests were performed on three different steel plates using abrasive suspensions at different concentrations of ground golden mussel shell in distilled water. The abrasivity of the golden mussel shell was also compared with the abrasivity of silicon carbide (SiC), commonly used as standard material in microabrasion tests. The analyses showed that the golden mussel shell is around 16 times less abrasive than the silicon carbide, taking into account the average obtained for the three different materials tested. In addition, the wear mechanisms acting on the SiC tests and those with the golden mussel shell were the same.