Waterjet erosion model for rock-like material considering properties of abrasive and target materials

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the characteristics of abrasive erosion considering the material properties of abrasives and targets. An abrasive particle erosion model considering energy transfer due to hardness differences was developed based on energy conservation using the correlation between volume removal and effective kinetic energy. To obtain the effective erosion kinetic energy of an abrasive, an acceleration model was derived for the abrasive particles, including terms describing the properties of the abrasive and fluid. The applicability of the suggested model was verified by comparing the brittle erosion results obtained using a previous theoretical approach to those of the present numerical analysis. The results obtained using the developed model exhibited good qualitative agreement with the brittle material erosion results. By evaluating acceleration and the erosion characteristics of an abrasive, the erosion performance could be predicted and optimized.