Experimental studies of high stress abrasive and impact-abrasive wear

In mining and mineral processing, the wear parts are subjected to abrasion and impacts produced by sand, rocks, and boulders. In many applications, the environment is very complex and may contain heavy loads and corrosive agents. Therefore, the materials selection for these conditions can be very demanding. However, the costs caused by replacing of the worn parts and, in the worst case, by unexpected shutdowns are the driving forces for the search for sustainable and wear resistant solutions.
Several application-oriented test methods have been developed for mining and mineral processing segments, such as hauling, crushing, and grinding. In the high-stress abrasive or impact wear testing, the loads must be high enough to deform the surfaces of the tested materials and to crush the relatively large natural rocks used in the tests. Moreover, the possibility to adjust the test parameters for simulating different wear environments is one of the key features in designing new wear test methods and devices.
The main difference between the test methods considered more closely in this presentation are the contact conditions between the rocks and the sample surfaces. The wear mechanisms are also different whether the rocks are crushed between two solid surfaces or the samples are only moving inside a rock bed without a specific counter-body. Moreover, the relative movement and speed between the contacting bodies in the presented systems are different. Although the application-oriented methods are able to produce conditions that are relatively close to the true in-service conditions, in many cases just one method is not enough to simulate the entire wear environment, and therefore it is advisable to use several different methods that complement each other.