Sliding wear of austenitic and austenitic-ferritic stainless steels

The dry sliding behavior of a 304L austenitic stainless steel and a duplex 2205 austenitic-ferritic stainless was investigated. The evolution of wear was characterized by the existence of a sliding-distance transition. In particular, wear passed from delamination to tribo-oxidation, with a reduction in wear rate. The occurrence of such a transition was interpreted with reference to a theory of sliding wear based on the formation, by subsurface plastic deformation, of a tribological layer and its detachment during sliding. It has been found that the transition is controlled by the ability of the tribological system to form, on its outer part, a protective oxide-rich scale. This introduces a kinetic limitation, which is particularly important in the case of the duplex 2205, because of its lower ductility in comparison to the 304L steel. In this frame, the influence of sliding velocity, the particular frictional behavior, the role of chromium in the oxidative wear, and the surface temperature evolution during sliding could be explained.     

True and apparent Young’s modulus in ferrous porous alloys

Residual porosity in ferrous powder metallurgical alloys induces the phenomenon of localized yielding, or first yielding, during tensile testing. This gives rise to the existence of a true (E₁) and apparent (E₂) Young’s modulus. The true Young’s modulus is similar to the dynamic modulus (E_d) determined by the acoustic resonance method, whereas the apparent Young’s modulus is lower than both E₁ and E_d. For alloys with hard microstructures the apparent Young’s modulus turned out to be about 6% lower than the true Young’s modulus and a negligible influence of matrix hardness and pore morphology was highlighted. However, for ferritic or ferritic–pearlitic materials this difference was higher, ranging between 14 and 31% and it decreases as pore roundness is increased. For austenitic AISI 316L alloys both E₁ and E₂ are lower than E_d because of the presence of oxides on the powder surface, which favour early decohesion at the necks during tensile testing.     

Effect of Aging on the Fracture Behavior of Lean Duplex Stainless Steels

The influence of aging in the range of 550 °C to 850 °C for 5 to 120 minutes on the impact fracture behavior of 2101 and 2304 lean duplex stainless steels (DSS) was investigated in the present study. The 2304 steel displayed ductile behavior irrespective of aging conditions. In contrast, the 2101 steel displayed a ductile behavior only in the case of aging for 5 minutes at 550 °C and 650 °C, whereas in all other cases, it fractured in a brittle manner. The brittle fracture behavior of the 2101 steel has been attributed to the precipitation of small black particles at the α/α and α/γ grain boundaries (nitrides), which form paths for easy crack propagation. In the 2304 steel, such particles precipitated at 750 °C and 850 °C, but they were located inside the austenitic grains because of the formation of secondary austenite. They therefore did not embrittle the steel. The larger Ni content of the 2304 steel favored the formation of the secondary austenite that is absent in the 2101 steel.     

A systematic approach to design against wear for Powder Metallurgy (PM) steel parts: The case of dry rolling–sliding wear

Aim of this work is proposing a systematic design approach for wear resistant components produced by Powder Metallurgy (PM). Wear is a cause of failure for many industrial PM parts. Gears and cams, for example, are subjected to rolling and rolling–sliding wear, dry or lubricated depending on the applications. The design criteria are mostly empirical, thus resulting fully conservative, sometimes excessively conservative. A need for defining design criteria for wear resistant PM parts is thus revealed, to exploit at best the specific characteristics of both technology and materials.     

Investigation of liquid-phase sintering by image analysis

The liquid-phase sintering of austenitic stainless steel alloyed with boron was studied by means of image analysis. By evaluating fractional porosity, the amount of liquid constituent, grain size, and pore morphology, the effect of boron content and sintering time on the sintering process was determined and discussed on the basis of the classic theory of liquid-phase sintering. Image analysis proves to be a powerful tool for optimizing the liquidphase sintering process.     

Dilatometry study of the sintering behavior of boron-alloyed Fe-1.5 pct Mo powder

The effect of different boron concentrations on the sintering behavior of an Fe-1.5 pct Mo (wt pct) prealloyed powder was investigated. Sintering was carried out in a dilatometer so that all dimensional changes involved with the densification process could be followed. Several transformations were found to occur by heating powder compacts to 1200 °C and then cooling them to room temperature. At high temperatures, boron promoted the formation of liquid phases that, through a more-efficient sintering kinetics, promoted a satisfactory densification. Faster heating rates also had beneficial effects on the density of the final products. From a microstructural point of view, boron tended to destabilize the ferritic phase and to form iron and molybdenum borides. These borides can be found both in the intergranular regions, with a typical eutectic morphology, and dispersed in the ferritic matrix, in the form of nanometer-sized precipitates. This feature, having a significant effect on the hardness of the bulk material, has been ascribed to a bainite-like precipitation of borides from an undercooled austenitic phase.     

Influence of post weld treatments on the fatigue behaviour of Al-alloy welded joints

In this paper the influence of different post welding treatments, such as ageing or shot peening, on the fatigue behaviour of Al-alloy welded joints was investigated. The analysed joints were candidates for car structural applications. Several four point bending fatigue tests were conducted on GMAW specimens subjected to different post weld treatments. The residual stress field acting on specimens was measured by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The results of tests were discussed with the aid of a finite element model of the specimen aimed to calculate the actual fatigue cycle, also taking account of residual stresses and of their redistribution during the test. This allowed to characterize the fatigue resistance of the joints, taking account of the effective stress acting in the region of crack initiation.     

Oxidative wear of heat-treated steels

In the present work, the oxidative sliding wear of a heat-treated steel at low-sliding velocities (less than 1 m/s) has been investigated. It has been shown that this type of wear can be described by a mechanism that considers the formation and agglomeration of oxide debris during sliding. The results have been modeled using available equations for two different types of oxidative wear and it has been shown that the model proposed by Sullivan and Hodgson can be used to predict the sliding wear rate of heat-treated steels in the low-sliding velocity wear regime. In this context, the important role of the surface bulk temperature is highlighted. In view of the above consideration, it is also pointed out that wear maps, developed from laboratory test results, have to be critically used for the design of tribological systems.     

Mild Sliding Wear of Fe–0.2%C,Ti–6%Al–4%V and Al-7072: A Comparative Study

The mild sliding wear of Fe–0.2%C, Ti–6%Al–4%V and Al-7072 was investigated by means of pin-on-disc sliding tests. The applied pressure was 1 MPa and the sliding velocity was varied between 0.2 and 1 m/s. The sliding behaviour was followed by continuous measurements of the friction coefficient, pin wear and pin temperature. For the Fe alloy, wear was mixed (delamination and oxidation), and friction and wear coefficients were found to decrease with sliding velocity. The Al and Ti alloys displayed a different behaviour, characterised by the occurrence of sliding distance transitions at 0.8 and 1 m/s for the Al alloy, and at 0.4 up to 1 m/s for the Ti alloy. Before the transition, the wear coefficient of the Al alloy was very low, because of the presence of a compacted tribolayer on the sliding surface. After the transition wear was by delamination: the wear rate increased but the friction coefficient decreased. For the Ti alloy, wear occurred by oxidation and was quite high before the transition. After the transition, both the wear rate and the friction coefficient decreased, although the wear process became unstable with repeated oscillations in the friction coefficient. The results allowed us to highlight the role of flash temperature in determining the wear mechanisms of the alloys under study and the necessity of properly considering the sliding distance transitions to make reliable comparisons and obtain guidelines for safe operations.