Wear behavior of HVOF sprayed WC coating under water-in-oil fracturing fluid condition

The wear failure problem of fracturing tools applied for oil and gas production could be improved by preparing WC based coating using high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) method. The comprehensive wear properties of the thermal spray WC based coatings were studied. To simulate the downhole environment, wear tests under wet condition were performed in water-in-oil (W/O) fracturing fluid. The experimental results indicated that the WC composite coatings exhibited lower friction coefficient, higher hardness and better wear resistance compared with that of the uncoated specimens. Furthermore, wear mechanisms of the thermal spray WC coating can be obtained by analyzing the worn surface.