Solid particle erosion (or erosive wear) implies the
removal of material from component surfaces due to
successive impact of hard particles travelling at substantial
velocities. It is to be noted that solid particle
erosio;l is different from the other forms of erosion
like liquid impact erosion, slurry erosion, cavitation
erosio:n, etc. Material removal due to solid particle
erosi is a consequence of a series of essentially
independent but similar impact events. Thus, the contact
between the hard particles and the component
surfac,? is of a very short duration. From this point of
view erosion is completely different from the other
closely related processes like sliding wear, abrasion,
grinding and machining wherein the contact between
the toNol/abrasive and the target/work-piece is continuous.
Degra#dation of materials due to solid particle erosion,
either at room temperature or elevated temperature, is
encountered in a large variety of engineering industries
as illustrated in Table l’-“. At the same time, the
erosion process has been used to advantage in a number
of situations like sand blasting of castings, shot peening
of ror.ating components, cutting of hard and brittle