The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of temperature on the sand-erosion behavior of high-chromium white cast irons. A 15%Cr pearlite-matrix white cast iron and a 15%Cr-3%Ni austenite-matrix white cast iron were prepared by unidirectional solidification method. The sand-erosion test was carried out under a constant slurry rate of 7.7 m/s at various temperatures of 277, 298, 313, 328 and 343 K. It was found that erosion loss of each white cast iron linearly increased with increasing testing time and exponentially increased with increasing slurry temperature. The erosion rate of 15%Cr white cast iron was always larger than that of 15%Cr-3%Ni white cast iron. Many crater-like damages were observed on the eroded surface of both specimens. Formation of the crater-like damages was pronounced at higher temperature and especially in the pearlite-matrix white cast iron. That is, the pearlite-matrix means to have a weaker resistance for sand-erosion than the austenite-matrix. The temperature dependence of erosion rate well corresponded to that of anodic polarization curve in both the specimens, so that the temperature dependence of erosion rate was presumed to be strongly affected by corrosion-reaction during the erosion.
