Erosion behavior of Ti(C,N)-based cermet in solid–liquid two phase flow

• Erosion wear of Ti(C,N)-based cermet in solid–liquid two phase flow was studied.
• Erosion wear started locally in binder phase and scattered craters were formed.
• Connected craters formed from scattered craters with larger number and size.
• Longer erosion time resulted in the interface debonding of hard particles.
• Repetitive impact of SiO2 caused fatigue of hard phase and microcracks formed.

Erosion wear test of Ti(C,N)–Mo2C–Co cermet in artificial seawater flow containing 5 wt.% SiO2 solid hard particles was conducted, and the erosion behavior as a function of erosion time was investigated. The results showed that the erosion wear started locally in the binder phases and craters of small size were formed. With the increase of erosion time, the scattered craters transformed to connected craters and both the number and size of craters increased. Longer erosion time resulted in the extension of erosion damage to the adherent hard particles, and fracture of the hard grains and falling off of hard particles can be seen due to the loss of the surrounding binder metal. Furthermore, microcracks formed in the hard phases of core/rim structure, which was attributed to the fatigue failure caused by the repetitive impact of erodent.