Determined to the microstructural and mechanical properties of deposits made of high alloy steels used in the construction of environmentally friendly hydraulic turbines

Abstract

Research on hydraulic turbines, regardless of type, has shown that all materials used in the manufacture of parts that are components of the flow path, working in the same conditions, are subject to hydro-abrasive wear, in different proportions. The most attacked components are the blades and the chambers of the hydraulic turbines. In this paper are studied materials used in the construction of hydraulic turbine blades that have been previously deposited by the method of the electro-spark deposition with tungsten carbide (WC) electrodes. These deposits were made in order to offer the turbine blades as high a reliability as possible but also to be able to use such hydraulic turbines in the harshest conditions and which could provide as much energy as possible. A high-alloy stainless steel containing Cr and Ni was used as the basic material for the study. The raw samples from a hydraulic turbine blade and those submitted were analyzed both structurally using the optical stereomicroscope and the SEM electron microscope and chemically using the EDX probe. High alloy steel based on Cr and Ni but also WC deposits will be subjected to mechanical tests to see how they resist wear.