Tribology International 62 (2013) 1828

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Tribology International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

Finite element modeling of solid particle erosion in AISI 4140 steel and nickeltungsten carbide composite material produced by the laser-based powder deposition process
Prabu Balu a, Fanrong Kong a, Syed Hamid b, Radovan Kovacevic a,n
a b

RCAM (Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing), Southern Methodist University, 3101 Dyer St.; Dallas, TX 75205, United States Halliburton, 2601 Beltline Rd.; Carrollton, TX 75006, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Received 17 September 2012 Received in revised form 6 December 2012 Accepted 17 January 2013 Available online 8 February 2013 Keywords: Solid particle erosion NiWC composite material Finite element model Laser-based powder deposition

a b s t r a c t
A FE dynamic model was developed to study the slurry erosion in NiWC composite material that considers both Ni and WC separately. The model was veried by the measured erosion rate and the eroded surface topography. The veried model was used to study the effect of material composition and different erodent particle characteristics such as impingement angle, velocity and the shape on the erosion rate, stress distribution and internal energy of the target material. The results show that the volume fraction of the Ni-matrix determines the energy absorption within the target material and the WC is responsible for minimizing the erodent attack. It was shown that a soft interlayer can provide more resistant to erosion in a multilayered NiWC deposit. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Slurry erosion is the major cause of downtime and the premature failure of components in industries such as oil and gas and coal mining, as well as in manufactured goods like gas turbines, rocket nozzles, and boiler tubes [1]. David [2] dened slurry erosion as Progressive loss of the material from a solid surface by the action of a mixture of solid particles in liquid in motion with respect to the solid surface. Slurry erosion involves complex material removal mechanisms that are governed by a number of variables such as the material properties of the target (eroding) and erodent material and erodent particle characteristics, including morphology, impingement velocity, and angle, the concentration of erodent in slurry [3]. In general, target materials show different types of erosion behavior for different erodent particle characteristics. For example, erosion in most ductile materials occurs as a result of cutting and ploughing deformations which are predominant at low impingement angles ( E 201 to 301) [4]. On the other hand, erosion in brittle material is primarily due to crack network formation that occurs at a normal (901) impingement angle [3]. The complexity of erosion mechanisms increases by many folds in the case of composite material (e.g., NiWC) because of the existence of both brittle (reinforcement: WC)

Corresponding author. E-mail address: kovacevi@lyle.smu.edu (R. Kovacevic).

and ductile (matrix: Ni) materials [5]. Thus, understanding the effect of different variables and their interactions on the erosion behavior of composite material through experimental techniques is costly, time consuming, and difcult. Finite element (FE) based numerical simulation can be used as a time and cost effective tool to estimate the erosion behavior of components exposed to slurry erosion under different erosion conditions with a limited number of experiments if a suitable erosion mechanism is implemented. A number of analytical and numerical studies have been performed to explain the erosion mechanisms of different materials for a wide range of erosion conditions. Over the past two decades, many numerical simulation-based approaches improved the understanding of erosion mechanisms and they were used in selecting the best slurry erosion resistant materials. Shimizu et al. [6] developed a two-dimensional (2D) nite element (FE) based model to study the erosion caused by the single particle impingement on steel and cast iron. The effect of impingement angle on erosion was quantied based on the extent of plastic deformation. They reported that steel and cast iron show maximum erosion at an impingement angle of 201, 301, and 601, respectively. Bielawski and Beres [7] studied the erosion resistance of the multilayered coating of titanium nitride through single particle impingement using a 2D FE model. They reported that a low magnitude of tensile stress was induced in a two-layer coating composed of a thin, low-modulus top layer and a thick, high-modulus bottom layer. Chen and Li [8] established a 2D micro-scale dynamic model for both ductile and brittle materials

0301-679X/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2013.01.021

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by mapping the material system into a discrete lattice. The effects of erodent particle characteristics on the erosion of ductile and brittle material were reported. Further, Chen and Li [9] extended their model in order to study the erosion behavior of copper/SiC based metalceramic composite material. The inuence of bond strength at the metal/ceramic interface, volume fraction of reinforcement particle, and size ratio of reinforcement particle to erodent particle on erosion rate were considered in their study. They reported that the small reinforcement particles were more resistant to erosion than the large ones. Hassani et al. [10] optimized the architecture (number of layers) of the nano titanium nitride composite coatings on titanium alloy and stainless steel substrate to achieve the excellent erosion resistance based on a 2D FE model. Woytowitz and Richman [11] presented a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model developed to estimate the erosion resistance of copper during the impingement of multi-particles. In their model the eroded volume was estimated by removing the failed element from the geometry based on the maximum stress and strain criteria. Aquaro and Fontani [3] developed a FE based numerical model to estimate the erosion behavior of ductile material and brittle material separately. However, the combined erosion behavior was not discussed in their study. Grifn et al. [12] studied erosion caused by the multi-particle (ve) impingement on alumina scale/MA956 substrate. In order to incorporate the actual material removal by erosion, element failure criterion and element removal technique were used. Eltobgy et al. [1] simulated the erosion behavior of titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) under the action of single and multiple particle impingement. A non-linear elasticplastic material model including the strain rate and temperature dependency was considered in their FE based simulation. Their study emphasized the need to model the multi-particle impingement to accurately predict the erosion behavior. Junkar et al. [13] presented a 3D FE based model to represent the single particle impact from an abrasive water jet machine. The inuence of particle velocity and the impingement angle on erosion rate was studied. Eshwar and Kovacevic [14] developed an erosion model based on the material failure criterion using the non-linear FE code ABAQUS/Explicit. The model was validated based on the measured quantities of the material removal rate and the depth of penetration. Wang and Yang [15] studied the erosion behavior of both ductile and brittle materials at different impingement angles of the erodent particle and its velocity using a 3D FE model. The model was used to estimate the residual stress and the total volume of material removed from the target through multi-particle impingement. Ma et al. [16] developed a hybrid code based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics and FE in order to simulate pure water jet penetration on mild steel. Wang et al. [17] studied the erosion behavior of titanium (Ti6Al4V) alloy by using a coupled nite element model and the mesh free technique available in commercial code ANYSY LSDYNA. They estimated the dependency of erosion on the impingement angle and velocity of the erodent particle. Further, the change in energy (internal, kinetic, and total) as well as the residual stress induced in the eroding material due to the impingement of erodent particle was investigated. The model was validated with the reported analytical models. However, the developed model was not validated with experimental data. After the state-of-the-art review of numerical modeling of solid particle erosion, it can be concluded that no numerical assessment has been reported on the erosion behavior of single and multilayered deposits of NiWC (metalceramic) composite material formed by laser-based powder deposition on an AISI 4140 steel substrate. Hence, the purpose of this investigation is to understand the erosion behavior of single and multilayered NiWC composite material under different erosion conditions

using an experimentally veried ANSYS LS-DYNA based numerical model.

2. Experimental set-up Single and multilayered deposits consisting of different compositions of nickel (Ni) and tungsten carbide (NT-20, NT-60, and NT-80) were produced using a 4 kW ber laser along with the multi-hopper powder feeding system developed at RCAM [18]. The letters N and T represent the nickel and tungsten carbide (WC), respectively and the number following letters represents the mass fraction of the WC in the NiWC deposit. The experimental procedure and the process conditions used to fabricate the NiWC composite material can be found in [19]. The micrographs of the single-layer NT-60 deposit and the two-layer NT-60 over NT-20 deposit are presented in Fig. 1a and b. To measure the erosion resistance of the fabricated coupons a high pressure water jet machine was utilized. Fig. 1c shows the specially designed xture that can be tilted to any angle between 01 and 901 from the horizontal axis. The erosion conditions used in this study are presented in Table 1.

3. Finite element formulation 3.1. Governing equations Abrasive slurry erosion is a high velocity dynamic event. This transient dynamic behavior was modeled using the explicit

Fig. 1. (a) and (b) Micrographs of the single-layer NT-60 deposit and the two-layer NT-60 over NT-20 deposit, respectively; (c) erosion testing facility.

Table 1 Erosion conditions. Variable Abrasive ow rate Abrasive material and mesh size Impact angle Exposure time Pump pressure Orice diameter Stand-off distance Focus tube diameter Focus tube length Unit g/s deg s MPa mm mm mm mm Value/range 4.53 Garnet, #80 30, 45, 90 10100 150 0.33 100 1.02 76.2

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dynamic analysis available at the nite element based commercial code ANSYS LS-DYNA. The laws of conservation of mass, momentum, and energy are expressed as Eqs. (1)(3) [20]. Conservation of mass is represented by [20]

rV r0

where V is the relative volume, r is the density (current), and r0 is the reference density. Conservation of momentum is given by [20] i sij, j rf i rx 2

Fig. 2. Discretized geometry of the garnet particles: (a) cubical; (b) spherical; (c) trigonal; (d) pentagonal.

where sij denotes the Cauchy stress, fi is the body force density, i is acceleration. and x Finally, conservation of energy is represented by [20] _ Vsij e _ ij p qdij E 3

Coulomb law of friction, in which, the frictional force Ff is proportional to the normal force Fn F f mF n 5

here sij, p, and q represent the deviatoric stresses, and pressure and bulk viscosity, respectively. The deviatoric stresses (sij ) is given by [20] sij sij p qdij 4

where m is the proportionality constant (coefcient of friction) which was assumed as 0.4 [20] in the current study. The failure of the surface element was decided based on the damage parameter Di el which is dened as [24] X pl Deef f =ef r 6 Di el is the accumulated incremental effective plastic where, Depl ef f strain and efr is the fracture or failure strain of target/erodent material. It was assumed that the element fails (erodes) due to the action of erodent particle when the Di el attains a value of 1. The ESTS algorithm detects the underlying/adjacent surface and establishes contact with the new surface when any of the contact surfaces fail. In this study, the erosion rate was used as a measure of slurry erosion resistance of the target material (i.e., higher value of erosion rate signies a greater vulnerability to erosion). The _ is dened by [24] erosion rate E X  _ E rDiel V iel =ne Me 7 where, r is the density of the eroded particle (Ni and/or WC), and ne and Me, are the number of erodent particles and the mass of erodent particle, respectively. The material models used in the FE simulation does not support the failure of element due to excessive distortion that results in non-convergence of calculation. Hence, the MAT_ADD_EROSION feature of LS-DYNA was used which allows for the deletion of excessively distorted elements from the calculation domain based on the maximum failure criterion. According to this feature, when the failure criterion (strain/stress) is encountered at an integration point, all the components of stress/strain are set to zero and the material point fails. When all of the material points at any section of an element fail the element is removed from the calculation domain [25]. 3.3. Material properties Since the NiWC metal matrix composite material is comprised of ductile matrix and brittle reinforcement, the erosion follows neither ductile nor brittle behavior [5]. The presence of such dual behavior in a typical composite material can cause a non-uniform material removal during the action of the erodent particle [26]. For example, the erosion rate depends on whether Ni or WC or both are present at the specic location where the erodent particle impinges. In order to capture this complex phenomenon, a more realistic erosion model for the composite material must assign location dependent material properties. For instance, an erosion model based on the effective mechanical properties of Ni and WC (average value) of Ni and WC may lead to an erroneous estimation of the erosion rate. Thus, a novel strategy is followed in this research where the geometry of the calculation domain is divided into both the Ni and WC regions depending on the mass fraction of WC in Ni-matrix (NT-20, NT-40, NT60, and

where dij is the Kronecker delta. The scheme followed to solve the governing equations is explained in the ANSYS LS-DYNA Theory Manual [20] and ANSYS Users Guide [21]. 3.2. Model description and conditions (initial and boundary) In the LS-DYNA FE code, the 3D, Lagrangian, dynamic-explicit and non-linear analysis was used. The 8-noded, 3D solid brick element SOLID164 was used to discretize both the substrate and deposited layer; whereas, both brick as well as quadrilateral elements were used to discretize the garnet particle. In order to minimize the computational cost without compromising the accuracy of the calculations, it is essential to optimize the geometry and the element size of the calculation domain. Thus, a number of trial simulations were performed to identify the effect of coupon dimensions, constraints, and element size on the equivalent plastic strain, equivalent stress, and time dependent internal energy. Based on the sensitivity study, the width and length of the coupon were set at 3 mm each and an element size of 0.05 mm was chosen. In all the simulations, the displacement in all three directions was set to zero at the bottom of the substrate. In a typical dynamic analysis specication of the initial condition is required to solve the problem. The initial condition for this analysis was an initial velocity of the garnet particle, which was estimated based on the known values of water pressure and the orice diameter of the water jet as presented by Junkar et al. [13] and Momber et al. [22]. In the real case, not all of the garnet particles are of same shape. Vasek et al. [23] showed seven different shapes of garnet particles. To study the effect of different shapes of the garnet particles on the erosion behavior, the numerical model incorporated four basic shapes: cubical, spherical, trigonal, and pentagonal. The discretized geometry of the different garnet particles is shown in Fig. 2. 3.2.1. Eroding surface to surface contact algorithm In a slurry erosion process the erodent particle impinges and subsequently damages the surface (crater or indent) of the target material. The repetitive action of the incoming erodent particles causes successive damage resulting in material removal from the contact surface. To capture this surface failure, the eroding surface to surface contact (ESTS) algorithm provided in the ANSYS LS-DYNA was used where the contact between the eroding target and the erodent particle was dened as master and slave, respectively [21]. The friction at the contact interface between the target material and erodent particle was dened by the

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Fig. 3. Discretized 3D FE model of the two-layer NT-60 over NT-20 on AISI 4140 steel and erodent.

Table 2 Plastic kinematic hardening material model for AISI 4140 steel [27]. Modulus of Density, r elasticity, E (MPa) (kg/m3) 210,000 7850 Strain rate parameter, C 40 Tangential modulus, Et (MPa) 21,000 Fracture strain, efr 0.15

Table 3 Bilinear isotropic plasticity material model for Ni [21,28]. Modulus of elasticity, E (MPa) 180,000 Density, Poisson r (kg/m3) ratio, n Yield stress, sy (MPa) 900 Tangential modulus, Et (MPa) 445 Fracture strain, efr

Poisson ratio, n

Yield stress, sy (MPa)

0.3 792 Strain rate parameter, P 5

8490

0.31

0.21

NT-80). The discretized geometry of the two-layer functionally graded NiWC composite material, substrate, and erodent particle is shown in Fig. 3. In this numerical study four different types of materials (substrate, matrix, reinforcement, and erodent) were used. The AISI 4140 steel was considered as substrate and NiWC (metal ceramic) composite material and garnet was used as coating material and erodent particle, respectively. For AISI 4140 substrate material, plastic kinematic hardening material model was considered as given in Table 2. For Ni, bilinear isotropic plasticity was considered as given in Table 3. The material models used for WC and garnet are presented in Table 4 and Table 5. The failure criterion based on the maximum strain was imposed for the AISI 4140 steel and Ni, whereas, for the WC and garnet a maximum tensile stress failure criterion was used (i.e., it was assumed that the WC fails when it reaches the value of the yield stress). 3.4. Assumptions Effect of water on material removal is negligible (i.e., only the garnet particle was considered). Deposit is defect free (i.e., the presence of defects such as crack and porosity was ignored).

Table 4 Material model for WC [28,29]. Modulus of elasticity, E (MPa) 675,000 Density, r (kg/ m3) 15,630 Poisson ratio, n 0.194 Fracture stress, sfr (MPa) 560

Table 5 Material model for garnet particle [13]. Modulus of elasticity, E (MPa) 245,000 Density, r (kg/ m3) 4000 Poisson ratio, n 0.27 Fracture stress, sfr (MPa) 500

Deposit is stress free (i.e., the residual stress in the deposited material was ignored). Perfect bonding at the interfaces (matrix/reinforcement, matrix/substrate, and reinforcement/substrate) exists. Composite material is composed of Ni and WC (i.e., the minor alloying elements such as silicon and boron were ignored). The ow diagram of step-by-step procedure used to model the erosion process in ANSYS LS-DYNA is presented in Fig. 4.

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3.5. Numerical results and discussions This numerical study explored the erosion behavior of AISI 4140 steel, and also single and multilayered deposits composed of

various mass fractions of WC in the Ni matrix. In particular, the emphasis was on the stress distribution and erosion rate of AISI 4140 steel and different compositions of NiWC metal matrix composite material under different erosion conditions such as garnet particle morphology (size and shape), its angle of impingement, and its velocity. The following section presents the validation of this numerical model.

Fig. 4. Flow diagram of the erosion model [24].

3.5.1. Comparison of the numerical and experimental results Fig. 5a and b represent the eroded surface topography and the von Mises equivalent stress distribution of the substrate material AISI 4140 steel at two different impingement angles, a 301and a 901, respectively. The erosion conditions used for this simulation are as follows: (1) shape of the garnet particle was cubical and spherical (with four particles in each shape); (2) the size of the garnet particle was 400 mm; (3) the mass ow rate and the initial velocity of the garnet particle was 4.53 g/s and 200 m/s, respectively; (4) simulation time was 0.25 ms. The total number of garnet particles that impinge the target material was calculated based on the mass ow rate of the garnet particle (considering the particle shape and size) and the simulation time. From Fig. 5a it can be seen that at a 301 the garnet particles form a groove like deformation on the substrate surface. This long groove type deformation may be due to the longer contact time of the garnet particle with the target material at lower impingement angle. When the impingement angle was increased from 301 to 901, the region of plastic deformation (indentation width and depth) increased signicantly. An increase in the plastic deformation due to an increased impingement angle can be attributed to the change in the garnet particle velocity vector component from near tangential to normal (perpendicular). A comparison of Fig. 5a and b conrms an increase in the magnitude of von Mises equivalent stress distribution in the substrate material. For example, the minimum value of von Mises equivalent stress of the AISI 4140 at a 301 and a 901, is 0.75 MPa and 2.1 MPa, respectively.

Fig. 5. The von-Mises equivalent stress distribution with the topography of the eroded surface of (a) and (b) AISI 4140 steel at impingement angle a 301 and a 901.

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The von Mises equivalent stress distribution with the eroded topography of the NT-20 single-layer deposit at two different impingement angles, a 301and a 901, respectively is presented in the Fig. 5c and d. The erosion conditions were the same as in the previous case. A deposited layer thickness of 0.5 mm was used in this study. Fig. 5c shows that at a 301 the groove like deformation length is smaller than in the case of AISI 4140 steel (see Fig. 5a) which conrms that the NT-20 deposit was more resistant to the erosion damage at a 301. As expected, presence of WC impedes the cutting action of the garnet particle resulting in higher erosion resistance. At the maximum impingement angle it was observed that the width of the deformation of NT-20 deposit (see Fig. 5d) is less than in AISI 4140. However, the erosion resistance of the NT-20 decreased with an increase in the impingement angle and attained minimum at normal impingement angle (a 901). The trend of increasing value of minimum stress at maximum impingement angle observed in AISI 4140 was also observed in the NT-20 deposit. Fig. 6a and b show the eroded surface of the single-layer NT-20 deposit obtained by scanning electron microscope at an impingement angle a 301 and a 901, respectively. It was clear from the eroded surface that the lower impingement angle of 301 forms a groove like shallow crater (see Fig. 6a) and the maximum impingement angle creates a deep crater. This observation was consistent with the modeling results (see Fig. 5c and d). To conrm the accuracy of the model in calculating the erosion rate, a simulation time of 0.5 ms was used in the following simulation. The mass ow rate of garnet particle was 4.53 g/s, and the particle size ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm with four different shapes (see Fig. 2) were allowed to impinge the xz

plane of the target material at random locations over the simulation time. Fig. 7a and b show the comparison of erosion rates between experimental and numerical calculations for AISI 4140 steel and the single-layer NT-20 deposit at three different impingement angles (a 301, a 451, and a 901). The estimated erosion rate for AISI 4140 steel follows the trend of decreasing magnitude of measured erosion rate when there was an increase in the impingement angle. Similarly, the estimated erosion rate of the NT-20 deposit reected the trend of having a measured erosion rate at all impingement angles. From these results, it can be stated that the erosion rate of AISI 4140 steel predicted by the model was more accurate than that of the NT-20 deposit (i.e., the erosion rates obtained by both experimental and the model for AISI 4140 are in agreement by approximately 9094%), but the model under-estimated the erosion rate for NT-20. For example, the erosion rate obtained by the experiment and numerical modeling for AISI 4140 at a 901 was 6.3 mg/g and 6.9 mg/g, respectively; while the measured and numerically estimated erosion rate of the NT-20 deposit at a 901 was 16.8 mg/g and 13.3 mg/g. This under-estimation of the erosion rate in the case of the NT-20 deposit could be attributed to a number of assumptions made in the numerical model, such as neglecting the residual stress and assumptions that no defects existed in the deposited material. In summary, at lower impingement angle a groove like deformation was observed in both AISI 4140 steel and NT-20 deposit. However, the length of the groove was limited by the presence of reinforcement (WC) in the NT20 deposit. For an increase in impingement angle the area of deformation and the magnitude of von Mises equivalent stress increased and reached the maximum value at a 901. This was because of the higher value of normal (perpendicular to target surface) velocity vector of the garnet particle.

Fig. 6. Eroded surface of single-layer NT-60 deposit at (a) a 301 (b) a 901.

3.5.2. The effect of garnet particle velocity on stress and erosion rate To study the effect of velocity of garnet particles (Vgp) on stress and erosion rates, the other erosion conditions such as mass ow rate and the morphology of garnet particles are maintained as stated in the description to Fig. 5. Fig. 8a through 8d illustrates the von Mises equivalent stress distribution of single-layer NT-60 deposits at two different impingement angles (a 151 and a 901). Fig. 8a corresponds to the von Mises equivalent stress distribution of the NT-60 deposit at Vgp 200 m/s and at a 151 which indicates that the area of deformation in both the width and length (x and y) directions were small. For the same impingement angle (a 151),

Fig. 7. Comparison of erosion rate obtained by experiment and numerical modeling at three different impingement angles: (a) AISI 4140 steel; (b) NT-20 single-layer deposit.

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Fig. 8. Effect of velocity of garnet particle (Vgp) on von-Mises equivalent stress distribution in single-layer NT-60 deposit at lower and maximum impingement angles (a 151 and a 901): (a) and (b) Vgp 200 m/s; (c) and (d) Vgp 400 m/s.

Fig. 9. The effect of garnet particle velocity on the: (a) time dependent internal energy of the single-layer NT-60 deposit; (b) erosion rate of the AISI 4140 steel and singlelayer NT-20 and NT-60 deposits.

a two fold increase in the velocity of the garnet particle (from 200 m/s to 400 m/s) resulted in a larger area of erosion (see Fig. 8c). The minimum and maximum values of equivalent von Mises stress from Fig. 8a are 0.10 MPa and 763 MPa, respectively. Similarly, the minimum and maximum values of equivalent von Mises stress from Fig. 8c are 0.11 MPa and 834 MPa, respectively. This shows that an increase in the velocity of garnet particles at a lower impingement angle signicantly increased the peak value of the stress (localized stress increase) rather than minimum stress. The von Mises stress distribution corresponding to Vgp 200 m/s and Vgp 400 m/s at a 901 is shown in Fig. 8b and d. An increase in the garnet particle velocity from 200 m/s to 400 m/s resulted in the formation of a new surface (subsurface) due to the failure of surface elements, which could be observed as patches of low von Mises stresses. A comparison of Fig. 5d (NT-20) and Fig. 8b (NT-60) conrms that an increase in the

volume fraction of WC reduces the minimum value of equivalent von Mises stress from 1.89 MPa to 0.49 MPa. In the slurry erosion process, the internal energy of the target material raises as the erodent particle impinges on it. This raise in internal energy may be correlated to the erosion behavior of different materials for different garnet particle characteristics (morphology, impingement velocity, angle of impact etc.). The internal energy of each nite element within the target material can be estimated based on the six components of stress and strain expressed by [20] IEnew IEold
6 X stress incremental strain volume 1

where the left hand side and the rst term on the right hand side of Eq. (8) indicates the internal energy at the current time step, and the previous time step, respectively.

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The time dependent internal energy within the single-layer NT-60 deposit for a combination of two different garnet particle velocities (Vgp 200 m/s and 400 m/s) and two different impingement angles (a 151 and a 901) is presented in Fig. 9a. The garnet particle size in this simulation was 250 mm. As expected, the internal energy of the NT-60 deposit attains a maximum value of 0.18 J after the impingement of eight garnet particles (cubical and spherical) at Vgp 400 m/s. The curve corresponding to the time dependent internal energy at Vgp 400 m/s and at a 151 indicates that the internal energy stored in the deposit was higher than that for the erosion condition corresponding to Vgp 200 m/s and a 901. This conrms that a combination of low a (151) and high Vgp (400 m/s) can cause severe damage to target material when compared to a combination of maximum a (901) and low Vgp (200 m/s). The simulated erosion rate of AISI 4140 steel, single-layer NT-20, and a NT-60 deposit for different velocities (from 100 m/s to 500 m/s) of garnet particle is shown in Fig. 9b. The garnet particle size was 250 mm and the other erosion conditions were identical to the ones stated in the description corresponding to Fig. 5. This result reveals that irrespective of the material the velocity of the garnet particle and the erosion rate are proportional. A closer examination of Fig. 9b indicates that the raise in erosion rate was sharp___from 100 m/s to 200 m/s with respect to 200 m/s to 500 m/s. This change in slope of erosion rate vs erodent velocity curve could be due to the failure of the garnet particle at the higher velocities. The study shows that the increase in velocity of the garnet particle increases both the magnitude and the area of equivalent von Mises stress, time dependent internal energy and the erosion rate of the target material.

3.5.3. The effect of garnet particle size on stress and erosion rate The cross-sections of single-layer NT-20 deposit showing the effect of garnet particle size on the von Mises equivalent stress distribution is illustrated in Fig. 10a through Fig. 10d. The garnet particle at a mass ow rate of 2.0 g/s was allowed to impinge the NT-20 deposit over a time period of 0.25 ms. Based on this, the number of garnet particles (the total number of erodent particles impinging on the target material was estimated by dividing the

total mass of the erodent released during the simulation time by the mass of single particle)were 2 and 15, corresponding to the size of the garnet particle 500 mm and 250 mm, respectively. The velocity of the cubical shaped garnet particle was 300 m/s. Fig. 10a and Fig. 10b represent the von Mises equivalent stress distribution after the impingement of 2 and 15 garnet particles at a 151, respectively. Note that a large number of smaller particle impingements at random locations result in a near uniform distribution of von Mises equivalent stress. Interestingly, the magnitude of stress in 15-garnet particle impingement is higher than in 2-garnet particle impingement though the mass of a garnet particle of 250 mm in diameter is almost eight times smaller than the mass of a garnet particle of 500 mm in diameter. This could be due to the fact that the algebraic sum of the contact area of the smaller garnet particles that established contact with the target material was larger than the contact area of the larger garnet particles. For example, the maximum algebraic sum of the estimated contact area for the two cubical shaped garnet particles of 500 mm size is 500,000 mm2 (500 mm 500 mm 2 mm 500,000 mm2). This conrms that the contact area determines the stress distribution in this case rather than the mass of the particle. A similar trend can be clearly observed at the maximum impingement angle a 901 (see Fig. 10 c and d). A comparison of Fig. 10c and d demonstrates that the larger particle impingement at a maximum impingement angle resulted an increase in the depth of the stress distribution. The relation between the erosion rate and the size of the garnet particles for three different materials at a 901 is displayed in Fig. 11. For a constant velocity of garnet particle (Vgp 300 m/s) an increase in the size of the particle increased the erosion rate of AISI 4140 steel in all the cases studied here. It is noteworthy that an increase in the erosion rate of AISI 4140 was lower when the garnet particle reached a size of 325 mm. The erosion rate of both the single-layer deposits of NT-20 and NT-60 followed the similar trend observed in AISI 4140. A closer examination of the singlelayer deposits of NT-20 and NT-60 revealed that the erosion rate declines with an increase in the garnet particle size after 325 mm. This behavior is predominant in single-layer NT-60 deposit. This is due to the fact that an increase in the size of the garnet particle beyond 325 mm causes failure of particles at Vgp 300 m/s. This failure, resulting in loss of kinetic energy, subsequently lowers the

Fig. 10. Cross-sections of single-layer NT-20 deposits showing the effect of erodent size on von-Mises equivalent stress distribution: (a) and (b) corresponding to 250 mm and 500 mm at a 151; (c) and (d) corresponding to 250 mm and 500 mm at a 901.

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erosion rate [15]. This effect can be clearly seen in a single-layer NT-60 deposit due to the higher volume fraction of WC, which in turn causes more intense fracturing of the garnet particles. 3.5.4. Effect of garnet particle shape on stress and erosion rates Cross-sections of a single-layer NT-60 deposit showing the effect of equal size of three different shapes (cubical, spherical, and trigonal) of garnet particle on the von Mises equivalent stress distribution at a 151 and a 901 are presented in Fig. 12a through 12f. The mass ow rate, velocity, and the size of the garnet particle were 2 g/s, 300 m/s and 300 mm. Two important observations can be made from these results. First, the von Mises stress distribution, corresponding to cubical and spherical shaped garnet particle at a 151 (see Fig. 12a and b), demonstrates that the cubical shaped garnet particle exhibits a combination of lesser value of peak stress (759 MPa) and higher value of minimum stress (0.18 MPa), when compared to the latter (spherical) where the peak stress and the minimum stress values were 836 MPa and 0.02 MPa. This trend was consistent at a 901 (see Fig. 12d and e) which conrms that irrespective of the impingement angle the cubical shaped garnet particle elevates the overall stress distribution of the target material (deposit) more effectively than the spherical shaped garnet particle.

The higher value of peak stress observed in the spherical garnet particle impingement may be due to the point contact (high stress concentration) nature of it with the target material. Second, the cubical garnet particle causes more damage to the target material. The presence of multiple cutting edges in the cubical garnet particle leads to a deeper penetration into the target material, subsequently resulting in severe deformation as shown in Fig. 12. In contrast, though the sharp edge or corner increases both the stress concentration and the depth of penetration, the value of peak stress (at a constant Vgp) depends on the mass of the garnet particle as well as the location of the impingement (whether the garnet particle impinges on the matrix or reinforcement particle or on both). Because the volume of the equal size of the cubical, spherical, and trigonal shaped garnet particles are different (Vcubical 4 Vspherical 4 Vtrigonal) the mass of these particles are also different (i.e., mcubical 4 mspherical 4 mtrigonal). Hence, it can be stated that the severe damage in the cubical shaped particle impingement originates from the difference in mass. This effect can be seen from the peak stress corresponding to the trigonal shaped garnet particle (see Fig. 12c and f). Nevertheless, the peak stress value of the cubical and trigonal shaped garnet particles are comparable at a 901 (see Fig. 12d and f). The depiction of the time dependent energy in respect to the spherical and cubical shaped garnet particles at a 151 and a 901 (see Fig. 13) reects the trend observed in the stress distribution. A maximum internal energy of 0.08 J was incurred after the impingement of cubical shaped garnet particles. This result conrms that the raise in energy is directly proportional to the raise in minimum stress distribution within the target material.

Fig. 11. Effect of size of the garnet particle on the erosion rate of the AISI 4140 steel and single-layer deposits of NT-20 and NT-60.

3.5.5. The effect of material composition on stress distribution and erosion rate The effect of a soft interlayer on the von Mises equivalent stress distribution is shown in Fig. 14a and b at a 901. The mass ow rate, velocity, and the size of the cubical shaped garnet particle was 2 g/s, 400 m/s, and 300 mm. The stress distribution corresponding to the single-layer NT-60 deposit (Fig. 14a) indicates that the maximum and minimum value of stress is 1520 MPa and 1.04 MPa, respectively. Fig. 14b shows the two-layer NT-60 over NT-20 deposits. An introduction of soft interlayer (NT-20) between the NT-60 and

Fig. 12. Cross-sections of single-layer NT-60 deposit showing the effect of erodent shape on von-Mises equivalent stress distribution: (a)(c) corresponding to cubical, spherical and trigonal shaped garnet particles at a 151, respectively; (d)(f) corresponding to cubical, spherical, and trigonal shaped garnet particles at a 901, respectively.

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AISI 4140 steel shows a signicant reduction in both the peak stress (1450 MPa) and minimum stress (0.92 MPa) when compared to the single-layer NT-60 deposit. The reduction of minimum stress can be attributed to an increase in the volume of the deposit. It is worthwhile to note that the stress distribution extends in the thickness direction in the case of the two-layer composite (NT-60 over NT-20) when compared to the single-layer deposit. This indicates that an addition of soft interlayer absorbs the energy more effectively, resulting in the reduction of the peak stress value. A closer examination on the deformation prole at the garnet particle impingement location delineates that the two-layer deposit (Fig. 14b) deform lesser than the single-layer deposit (Fig. 14a). This demonstrates that the stress absorption reduces the severity of deformation. To show the effect of layer thickness on stress distribution, an NT-20 deposit of thickness 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm was considered. The results, corresponding to two different thicknesses at a 901, is presented in Fig. 15. As expected, both the peak stress and minimum stress in the 0.5 mm thick NT-20 deposit (Fig. 15b) were higher than those for the 1.0 mm thick NT-20 deposit (Fig. 15b). Note that the extent of deformation was almost identical in both cases. However, increasing the layer thickness resulted in local stress reduction as a result of better energy absorption. Fig. 16 illustrates the effect of the volume fraction of the WC in Ni-matrix on the erosion rate at three different impingement angles (a 451, a 701, a 901). In this study, a simulation time of 0.25 ms was used. The mass ow rate of garnet particles was 4.53 g/s and the particle sizes range from 100 mm to 400 mm and four different shapes (see Fig. 2) were used. The initial velocity of the garnet particle was 200 m/s. Initially, for all three impingement angles, the erosion rate decreased with an increase in the volume fraction of WC and reached a minimum value at 40% volume fraction of WC. When the volume fraction of the WC was further increased the erosion rate slowly rose and drastically increased when the volume fraction of WC reached a value of 70%.

This can be explained by the fact that beyond a critical volume fraction of the WC particles, the matrix material which acts as an impact energy shock absorber does not transfer (spread) the received energy from the garnet particle to the neighboring material. In other words, an excessive volume of WC particles may provide more resistance to erosion attack, but the poorer absorption of energy due to the lack of Ni-matrix result in the accumulation of internal energy within a very narrow region. This local increase in an internal energy can raise the magnitude of the local plastic strain, subsequently forming the crack when the plastic strain reaches the critical plastic strain (or stress) of the Ni/WC. The successive impingement of garnet particles causes the crack to grow. Finally, the coalescence of a number of cracks forms the crack network resulting in the failure of the material [15]. This relationship between the volume fraction of the WC and the erosion rate is in good agreement with the experimental result (i.e., the NT-80 deposit display a higher erosion rate than the NT-60 deposit). Chen and Li [9] observed this type of erosion behavior in a Cu/SiC composite material and reported that a 30% volume fraction of SiC in Cu provided better erosion resistance. A similar observation was reported in the other composite material such as NiWC [30] and in H13 steelTiC [31].

Fig. 15. Cross-sections show the effect of layer thickness on von-Mises equivalent stress distribution at a 901 in NT-20 deposit of thickness: (a) 0.5 mm; (b) 1.0 mm.

Fig. 13. The effect of erodent shapes on the time dependent internal energy of the single-layer NT-60 deposit.

Fig. 16. The effect of the volume fraction of the WC in Ni-matrix on erosion rate at different impingement angles.

Fig. 14. Cross-sections show the effect of the interlayer on von-Mises equivalent stress distribution: (a) single-layer NT-60 deposit at a 901; (b) two-layer NT-60 over NT-20 at a 901.

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In summary, the simulation results show that the volume fraction of the Ni-matrix determines the energy absorption within the target material and the WC is responsible for restraining the number of damage site caused by the garnet particle.

4. Conclusions A dynamic model was developed based on the commercial nite element code ANSYS LS-DYNA in order to study the effect of different erosion conditions such as garnet particle morphology (size and shape), angle of impingement, and its velocity on stress distribution, energy absorption, and the erosion rate of AISI 4140 steel and different compositions of single and multi-layered NiWC based metal ceramic composite material. The numerical results provide guidelines for choosing suitable NiWC composition needed to minimize the erosion over a wide range of erosion conditions. The following conclusions were drawn based on the results of the numerical study. (a) The erosion mechanism for AISI 4140 steel followed typical ductile properties (ploughing and cutting deformation) while the mechanism for the NiWC composite material involved both the ductile and brittle erosion mechanisms depending on the erosion condition. (b) Irrespective of the material, a garnet particle with multiple sharp edges caused more damage to the target material at all impingement angles. (c) At a higher velocity of garnet particle ( 4 300 m/s) an increase in garnet particle size beyond 325 mm resulted in a reduction of erosion rate due to the fracturing of the garnet particle for the particular material properties of garnet particle studied. (d) A presence of NT-20 interlayer between the NT-60 layer and substrate absorbed the impact energy more effectively than a single-layer of NT-60 on substrate and reduced the extent of deformation due to the reduction in the peak stress. (e) The critical volume fraction of WC in Ni-matrix that provided a minimum erosion rate was in the range of 4050%. (f) The developed model can be used to estimate the erosion behavior of any (monolithic and/or composite) material combination in a wide range of erosion conditions using a suitable material behavior model. (g) It is concluded that the slurry erosion resistance of the AISI 4140 steel can be signicantly enhanced by introducing a multilayered deposit of NiWC composite material produced by the laser-based powder deposition process.

Acknowledgement This work was nancially supported by NSF Grant No. IIP1034652. The authors acknowledge Mr. Andrzej Socha for his help in conducting the experiments. References
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