General method for predicting the sand erosion rate of GFRP

Sand erosion behavior and wear mechanism of various types of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) were investigated. Erosion behavior of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) changed from ductile manner to brittle one with increase of glass fibre content, and erosion rate was maximum at vertical impact for higher glass fibre content FRP. FRP showed higher resistance to erosion damage than resin matrix at low angle of attack, the contrary tendency can be observed at higher angle of attack. The importance of damage of glass fibre bundles accompany with surrounding resin and effect of orientation angle of fibres on erosion damage of FRP were pointed out. Based on these factors and applying similar equation of the rule of mixture for strength of FRP, prediction method for erosion rate was proposed.By using this method, erosion rates of all types of GFRP under various angles of attack and impacting velocity can be estimated by knowing only the rate of matrix resin.