Understanding wear mechanisms and their implication to service life of pneumatic conveying pipelines

Pneumatic conveying is a process of transporting particulate material through pipelines using compressed gas. As material is conveyed through pipeline and bends, the pipeline especially after bends suffers severe wear due to particles’ interactions with the surfaces. Removal of material from solid surfaces by action of impinging particles is known as erosion. It is well known that particle velocity and impact angle play a major role in determining the material removal rate from the surface. In a recent study, it was demonstrated that materials’ response to deformation during impacts dictates how the material is removed from the surface. This paper presents the surface characteristics of ductile materials due to single-particle impacts as well as standard erosion using micro-sand blaster. Surface and subsurface damage characteristics with respect to the impact parameters as well as particles’ angularity have been presented. Aluminum and mild steel surfaces impacted by spherical zirconia and angular alumina particles have been analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Finally, the material removal mechanisms have been discussed with respect to the service life of pneumatic conveying pipelines