Water Droplet Erosion (WDE) is a wear erosion phenomenon that is predominantly observed in gas, steam and wind turbines due to repetitive droplet impacts. In this work, various damage mechanisms pertaining to this phenomenon, described in the literature, are reviewed in detail. It was found that various surface treatments have been applied to delay the start of erosion in the material. However, in doing so the role of strain hardening was not well understood.
In this work, a suitable material is identified to study the effect of strain hardening on the WDE performance. The material was characterized for various mechanical properties and for water droplet erosion. The material was also tested for WDE by performing a Deep Rolling (DR) treatment before testing. The erosion incubation time is analyzed by considering the yield strength, elastic resilience and strain hardening exponent. It was found that the erosion incubation time is dependent on the yield strength, elastic resilience and strain hardening exponent of the material.
The role of strain hardening on WDE performance was also studied by intermittent strain relieving of the samples exposed to WDE. The frequency of strain relieving was found to influence the erosion behavior. It was observed that frequent strain relieving during WDE influences the erosion incubation time and the maximum erosion rate.