Methodology development for investigation of slurry abrasion corrosion by integrating an electrochemical cell to a miller tester

Material losses in slurry handling systems constitute a significant fraction of cost in oil sands, mining, and mineral processing operations. It is thus important to better understand wear attack mechanisms and major factors affecting wear in such applications. In this work, a methodology and a testing system have been developed to study the abrasion–corrosion synergism during slurry abrasion based on a Miller test machine by incorporating a three-electrode electrochemical cell. The proposed methodology has then been validated experimentally using QT 100 steel. It has been shown that cathodic protection using such system setup is effective in suppressing the corrosion effect on the total material loss. In general, corrosion-induced enhancement on slurry abrasion loss rate increases with slurry corrosivity but inversely with sliding speed.