Abstract:
In the present work, the slurry erosion behavior of friction stir processed (FSPed) hydroturbine
steel (CA6NM) was investigated. For comparison, the erosion performance of
unprocessed CA6NM steel was evaluated under similar conditions. Friction stir processing
(FSP) is a microstructural refinement tool which is useful in enhancing the bulk and
surface properties of materials. An in-depth characterization of both steels was done using
an optical microscope (OM), a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy
dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique, and
micro- and nano-indentation techniques. The FSP of the steel helped in reducing the erosion
rates by 50% to 60%, depending upon the impingement angle. The improved performance
of the FSPed steel in comparison to unprocessed steel was attributed to
microstructural refinement, which increased the hardness and yield strength. At an oblique
impingement angle, plowing, along with microcutting, was observed to be the dominant
erosion mechanism. At a normal impingement angle, the material removal process was
controlled by the platelet mechanism of erosion. A modified form of the mathematical
model for predicting the erosion rates of the ductile materials, proposed by authors earlier,
was also presented. This modified model based upon the theory of plasticity was able
to predict the erosion rates with an accuracy of 620%.
