Semiempirical Erosion Model of Plastic Materials in a Solid Particulate Flow

Abstract

The Ruff–Wiederhorn hypothesis that several particles participate in an erosion event of plastic materials in a solid particulate flow is analyzed. The proposed erosion model is based on two kinds of particles, primary and secondary, that differently participate in the erosion process. The primary particles create a crater with a bolster at its edges due to residual deformation and the secondary particles remove the displaced material. The number of secondary particles in an erosion event is determined by criterion generalization of known experimental data. It is shown that the degree in the dependence of the erosion rate on the particle velocity changes from 3 up to 2 at small and large impact velocities, respectively. The erosion rate increases with heating to a certain limit as the number of secondary particles decreases. Too hard particles, whose material has high sound speed, decrease erosion as compared with particles of softer material because of the reduction in contact time.