Influences of sand concentration and flow velocity on hydro-abrasive erosion behaviors of HVOF sprayed Cr3C2–NiCr and WC–Cr3C2–Ni coatings

Abstract

Improving the hydro-abrasive erosion (HAE) resistance of the existing flow-handling components has been a matter of continuous effort for the hydraulic machineries. In current work, the effects of sand concentrations (SC) and flow velocities (FV) on HAE behaviors of high-velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) sprayed carbide-based cermet (i.e. Cr3C2–NiCr and WC–Cr3C2–Ni) coatings were studied using a rotating disk rig facility. The obtained results revealed that the WC–Cr3C2–Ni coating possessed lower porosity value, higher hardness (H) and elastic modulus (E) values, superior HAE resistances, and appeared less influenced by SC as well as FV compared with the Cr3C2–NiCr coating. Higher SC and FV caused more severe HAE degradations for both carbide-based cermet coatings, while FV had a greater influence on HAE resistances for both coatings than SC. With the increase of the SC and FV, the Cr3C2–NiCr coating experienced the HAE process of the isolation of hard phase grains as well as the scouring, the connection of micro-cracks as well as severe plastic deformations, and the crater formation as well as deep scour marks, while the HAE process of the WC–Cr3C2–Ni coating mainly included the micro-cracks, the erosion pits, and the scour marks.