Investigations on erosion performance of carbon fiber–epoxy-based composite adhesion on 16Cr5Ni steel

This work presents a novel insight into slurry erosion behavior of thin layer of carbon fiber–epoxy-based composite adhered on 16Cr5Ni steel (adhesive coating) to evaluate its viability as a feasible candidate for slurry erosion applications. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory-developed slurry erosion test rig under accelerated conditions to study the effect erosion parameters namely slurry concentration, impact angle, and impact velocity. Under all the experimental conditions, adhesive coating showed better slurry erosion resistance in comparison with bare 16Cr5Ni steel specimens. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that in the case of bare 16Cr5Ni steel; ploughing, micro-cutting, crater, plastic deformation, and lip formation were identified as main mechanism responsible for slurry erosion, whereas in the case of adhesive coating; pitting, cracking, fracturing, and shearing-off were found to be mainly responsible for material loss. It implies that adhesive coating showed a brittle mode of failure under slurry erosion conditions, whereas 16Cr5Ni steel exhibited a ductile mode of erosion.