Wear 267 (2009) 2132–2140 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Wear journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear Review Understanding particle dynamics in erosion testers—A review of influences of particle movement on erosion test conditions Tong Deng a,∗ , Mark S. Bingley b , Mike S.A. Bradley a a The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, Medway School of Engineering, University of Greenwich, UK b Medway School of Engineering, University of Greenwich, UK article info Article history: Received 15 September 2008 Received in revised form 11 February 2009 Accepted 13 February 2009 Available online 9 March 2009 Keywords: Erosion testers Particle dynamics Centrifugal tester Gas-blast tester abstract An understanding of particle dynamics is important when determining material erosive wear in any erosion tester, because particle impact conditions are primarily influenced by particle acceleration. A better understanding of particle dynamics in the testers will aid the control of erosion test conditions and therefore improve the accuracy of measurement. In this paper, particle dynamics in the two most popular erosion testers, the centrifugal erosion tester and the gas-blast erosion tester, has been discussed in detail. Mechanisms of particle acceleration in the two types of testers were explored and computational models of particle dynamics were described briefly. A review of the experimental determination of important characteristics of particle dynamics (such as particle velocity, particle trajectory, particle dispersion and particle rotation) showed how they influenced particle movement and therefore the particle impact conditions. In addition, comparison of the particle dynamics in the two types of erosion testers showed that differences of particle acceleration may lead to significantly different results at identical pre-set test conditions. It may be concluded that it is not possible to directly compare the results obtained in different types of erosion testers even under notionally identical test conditions. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 2133 2. Particle acceleration dynamics in the erosion testers ............................................................................................... 2133 2.1. Acceleration mechanisms and major dynamic parameters .................................................................................. 2133 2.1.1. Mechanisms of particle acceleration in the testers ................................................................................. 2133 2.1.2. Major parameters of particle dynamics ............................................................................................ 2134 2.1.3. Effect of dynamic parameters on measured erosion rate .......................................................................... 2135 2.2. The centrifugal erosion tester ................................................................................................................ 2135 2.2.1. Particle acceleration mechanism ................................................................................................... 2135 2.2.2. Particle rotation ..................................................................................................................... 2135 2.2.3. Particle jet dispersion .............................................................................................................. 2135 2.3. The gas-blast erosion tester .................................................................................................................. 2136 2.3.1. Particle acceleration ................................................................................................................ 2136 2.3.2. Particle rotation ..................................................................................................................... 2136 2.3.3. Particle dispersion .................................................................................................................. 2136 2.4. Summary of particle dynamic influences .................................................................................................... 2136 3. Experimental evidences of particle dynamics ....................................................................................................... 2137 3.1. Particle velocity distributions ................................................................................................................ 2137 3.2. Particle jet divergence ........................................................................................................................ 2137 3.3. Particle rotation .............................................................................................................................. 2138 4. Discussions ........................................................................................................................................... 2138 ∗ Corresponding author at: The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology, Medway School of Engineering, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK. Tel.: +44 20 8331 9951; fax: +44 20 8331 8647. E-mail address: T.Deng@gre.ac.uk (T. Deng). 0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2009.02.020