This article addresses the important variables in erosion, such as particle impact velocity; particle impact angle; particle size, shape, and material; and ambient temperature. It describes four erosion test methods: the gas-blast method, a method using a centrifugal accelerator test rig, the wind-tunnel test, and the whirling arm test. The article also details the various test methods used to measure impact velocity of particle and data analysis and interpretation of these four methods.

This article considers the main characteristics of wear mechanisms and how they can be identified. Some identification examples are reported, with the warning that this task can be difficult because of the presence of disturbing factors such as contaminants or possible additional damage of the worn products after the tribological process. Then, the article describes some examples of wear processes, considering possible transitions and/or interactions of the mechanism of fretting wear, rolling-sliding wear, abrasive wear, and solid-particle erosion wear. The role of tribological parameters on the material response is presented using the wear map concept, which is very useful and informative in several respects. The article concludes with guidelines for the selection of suitable surface treatments to avoid wear failures.

The use of thermal spray coatings to restore worn surfaces has provided a significant improvement in surface performance due to improved wear resistance. This article discusses the general use of thermal spray coatings in reducing predominant types of wear, namely, abrasive wear, erosive wear, adhesive wear, and surface fatigue.

Erosion occurs as the result of a number of different mechanisms, depending on the composition, size, and shape of the eroding particles; their velocity and angle of impact; and the composition of the surface being eroded. This article describes the erosion of ductile and brittle materials with the aid of models and equations. It presents three examples of erosive wear failures, namely, abrasive erosion, erosion-corrosion, and cavitation erosion.

Erosion is the progressive loss of original material from a solid surface due to mechanical interaction between that surface and a fluid, a multicomponent fluid, an impinging liquid, or impinging solid particles. The detrimental effects of erosion have caused problems in a number of industries. This article describes the processes involved in erosion of ductile materials, brittle materials, and elastomers. Some examples of erosive wear failures are given on abrasive erosion, liquid impingement erosion, cavitation, and erosion-corrosion. In addition, the article provides information on the selection of materials for applications in which erosive wear failures can occur.

Solid particle erosion (SPE) is the loss of material that results from repeated impact of solid particles energized in a carrier fluid. This article reviews important SPE variables, their effects for different classes of materials, composites and coatings, and the mechanisms and theories proposed to explain SPE. It discusses the SPE of metals, steels, and ceramics, as well as erosion of alloys with coarse, nominally two-phase microstructures in which the second-phase particles (SPPs) are typically large compared with the dimensions of the damage zone created by the impact of one particle. The article summarizes the erosion characteristics of polymer matrix composites (PMCs), metal matrix composites (MMCs), ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), and erosion-resistant coatings. The combination of parameters included in most erosion models is also summarized.

Wear is mechanically-induced surface damage that results in the progressive removal of material. Because different types of wear occur in machinery, many different types of wear tests have been developed to evaluate its effects on materials and surface treatments. This article provides an explanation on mechanisms, forms (sliding, impact, and rolling) and the causes of wear. It describes the wear measuring methods, including the mass loss method, wear width method, and scar depth method. The units used to report wear vary with type of wear and with the purpose for which the data are to be used. Listing the considerations of tribosystem analysis, the article provides information on selection of ASTM wear test methods grouped by wear type. The article concludes by tabulating the testing geometries and parameters that are commonly controlled and reported when conducting wear tests.

This article provides a discussion on the mechanisms of wear and their interactions with gaseous corrosion. The wear mechanisms include abrasive, erosive, fretting, and sliding. The measurement of degradation on combustion walls in coal-fired boilers is discussed. The article concludes with information on the common coating techniques used for wear-corrosion control.

This article provides a general overview of physical and mechanical properties, alloy compositions, applications, and product forms of cobalt-base alloys as wear-resistant, corrosion-resistant, and/or heat-resistant materials. The discussion is largely focused on cobalt-base alloys for wear resistance, as this is the single largest application area of cobalt-base alloys.

This article focuses on the corrosion-wear synergism in aqueous slurry and grinding environments. It describes the effects of environmental factors on corrosive wear and provides information on the impact and three-body abrasive-corrosive wear. The article also discusses the various means for combating corrosive wear, namely, materials selection, surface treatments, and handling-environment modifications.

This article focuses on the tribological behavior of group 1, 2, and 3 cobalt-base alloys, namely, carbide-type wear-resistant alloys and laves-type wear-resistant alloys. The behavior includes hardness, yield strength and ductility, and fracture toughness. The article contains a table that lists the nominal compositions and typical applications of cobalt-base alloys. It discusses the properties and relative performance of specific alloys when subjected to the more common types of wear. These include abrasive wear, high-temperature sliding wear, rolling-contact fatigue wear, and erosive wear.

Impact or percussive wear is defined as the wear of a solid surface that is due to percussion, which is a repetitive exposure to dynamic contact by another body. Impact wear, however, has many analogies to the field of erosive wear. The main difference is that, in impact wear situations, the bodies tend to be large and contact in a well-defined location in a controlled way, unlike erosion where the eroding particles are small and interact randomly with the target surface. This article describes some generic features and modes of impact wear of metals, ceramics, and polymers. It discusses the processes involved in testing and modeling of impact wear, and includes two case studies.

Standardization, repeatability, convenience, short testing time, and simple measuring and ranking techniques are desirable in wear and erosion tests. This article provides a brief review of the wear testing methods and wear and erosion test equipment. General elements of a wear test, namely, simulation, acceleration, specimen preparation, control, measurement, and reporting, are reviewed.

Stainless steels are characterized as having relatively poor wear resistance and tribological properties, but they are often required for a particular application because of their corrosion resistance. This article describes the classification of stainless steels and wear. Stainless steels have been classified by microstructure and are categorized as austenitic, martensitic, ferritic, or duplex. The main categories of wear are related to abrasion, erosion, adhesive wear, and surface fatigue. The article presents a list that proposes the alloy family that could be the optimal selection for a particular wear mode. The corrosion modes include dry sliding, tribocorrosion, erosion, erosion-corrosion, cavitation, dry erosion, erosion-oxidation, galling and fretting.

Reinforced polymers (RPs) are widely used in structural, industrial, automotive, and engineering applications due to their ecofriendly nature and the potential to manipulate their properties. This article addresses the technical synthesis of RPs, referring to their tribological behavior, to provide insights into the contribution and interaction of influential parameters on the wear behavior of polymers. It provides a brief discussion on the effects of significant parameters on RP tribology. The article describes abrasive and adhesive wear and provides a theoretical synthesis of the literature regarding the wear mechanisms of RPs. It also describes the synthesis of abrasive wear failure of different types of RPs and highlights the contribution of these influential parameters. The article addresses the synthesis of adhesive wear failure of different types of RPs.

Erosion, cavitation, and impingement are mechanically assisted forms of material degradation that often contribute to corrosive wear. This article identifies and describes several tests that are useful for ranking the service potential of candidate materials under such conditions. The tests, designed by ASTM as G32, G73, G75, and G76, define specimen preparation, test conditions, procedures, and data interpretation. The article examines the relative influence of various test parameters on the incubation and intensity of cavitation, including temperature, pressure, flow velocity, and vibration dynamics. It concludes with a discussion on data correlations and the relationship between laboratory results and service expectations.

This article considers two mechanisms of cavitation failure: those for ductile materials and those for brittle materials. It examines the different stages of cavitation erosion. The article explains various cavitation failures including cavitation in bearings, centrifugal pumps, and gearboxes. It provides information on the cavitation resistance of materials and other prevention parameters. The article describes two American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for the evaluation of erosion and cavitation, namely, ASTM Standard G 32 and ASTM Standard G 73. It concludes with a discussion on correlations between laboratory results and service.

Tribocorrosion is the subject dealing with complex, synergistic effects of chemical and mechanical conditions that cause wear. This article begins with a discussion on oxidative wear and corrosive wear, as well as quantitative measurements of corrosion, mechanical wear, and wear-corrosion effects. It illustrates the mechanism of corrosive-abrasive wear and discusses the factors affecting two-body wear. These factors include particle shape, size, density, and hardness; slurry velocity; slurry particle angle of attack; solids concentration in the slurry; hydrodynamic factors; corrosion products and the mass transfer of oxygen. The article describes slurry particle impingement tests and grinding tribocorrosion tests, as well as the factors to be considered for mitigating corrosive wear, such as materials selection, surface treatments, and environment modifications.

This article discusses the tests designed specifically to evaluate the adhesion, friction, and wear behavior of various material systems. It tabulates the characteristics of common types of wear and mechanical surface damage. The article also considers the displaying and analyzing of adhesion, friction, and wear test data. It concludes with a description of devices used for testing adhesion, friction, and wear.