title: Influence of impact speed on water droplet erosion of TiAl compared with Ti6Al4V.
abstract: Water Droplet Erosion (WDE) as a material degradation phenomenon has been a concern in power generation industries for decades. Steam turbine blades and the compressor blades of gas turbines that use water injection usually suffer from WDE. The present work focuses on studying erosion resistance of TiAl as a potential alloy for turbine blades compared to Ti6Al4V, a frequently used blade alloy. Their erosion behaviour is investigated at different droplet impact speeds to determine the relation between erosion performance and impact speed. It is found that the relationship is governed by a power law equation, ER ~ V(n), where the speed exponent is 7-9 for Ti6Al4V and 11-13 for TiAl. There is a contrast between the observed speed exponent in this work and the ones reported in the literature for Ti6Al4V. It is attributed to the different erosion setups and impingement conditions such as different droplet sizes. To verify this, the erosion experiments were performed at two different droplet sizes, 464 and 603 μm. TiAl showed superior erosion resistance in all erosion conditions; however, its erosion performance exhibits higher sensitivity to the impact speed compared to Ti6Al4V. It means that aggressive erosion conditions decrease the WDE resistance superiority of TiAl.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, QC, Montreal, Canada H3G 1M8.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Mahdipoor
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, QC, Montreal, Canada H3G 1M8.
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kirols
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, QC, Montreal, Canada H3G 1M8.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kevorkov
authors.affiliation: Rolls-Royce Canada Ltd. Energy, 9545 Cote-de-Liesse, Dorval, QC, Canada H9P 1A5.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jedrzejowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, QC, Montreal, Canada H3G 1M8.|Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Masdar Institute, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE, P.O. Box 54224.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Medraj