In many engineering applications the lifetime of the machine part or component is limited by its erosion resistance. Due to the unique combination of hardness and toughness properties a variety of metal matrix composite (MMC) materials and coatings has been developed for such applications. Most of the information available on the erosion wear properties of these materials has been derived from laboratory tests. To predict the erosion wear resistance two different erosion theories (plastic deformation and brittle fracture) should be taken into consideration. In erosion wear that involves solid particle impact against the surface, plastic deformation, brittle fracture or combined mechanisms are dominating, depending on the properties of target material surface. A relatively soft metal matrix requires a model of plastic deformation and the ceramic hard-phase needs both of the models: the plastic deformation and the brittle fracture model of wear. Erosion models of homogeneous materials were used for plastic contact and brittle fracture. In this paper an attempt is made to model the erosion wear of composite materials, to calculate the wear rate and to correlate erosion rates with experimental results and material parameters.
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