Materials Selection for Resistance to Abrasion_eg. for applications such as Iron Ore Slurry Transportation

An impressive and succinct presentation of materials,mainly special steels for use in ore mineral transportation as slurry often over huge distances.

This most usefull graphical representation of types of materials that can be transported via pipeline, slurries, is given below. On the upper left (LHS) of the diagonal, the materials to be transported are plotted according their Mohr's hardness on a log10 scale (y-axis) against pipeline candidate materials mainly steels, with some ceramic (coatings) classified according to their hardness, both Brinell and Rockwell tests, on the lower right (X-axis)  The inclusion of  soft materials such as general plastics, talc and the more and more in view graphite, (nanoapplics)  provide a strong contrast which highlights the resistance of the steel tube contenders.

A table of contents from his short and to the point publications reads as follows:

     -Typical Mine Applications.
     -Types of Wear.
     -Hardness.
     -Piping Materials.
     -Material Alloying: metallurgy for strength and harndess.
               -Heat treatment (quenching technology) to harden inner surface,
                while maintaining a more ductile exterior surface.
     -Wear Tiles and Inserts: tiles are of course made from materials that are harder and more abrasion        resistant than the base steel piping.
     -Rubber/Poly Lined Pipe.
     -Double Wall Pipes.
     -BiMetallic Pipes. (advantages, but without the disadvantages of the double wall pipes).
     -System Design Considerations:
           Particle size, shape, and hardness, Particle Velocity,

A most instructive read (link to full paper by Robert E. Klemm, P.E. of UltraTech.  )