Friction and wear mechanism of unlubricated 304L austenitic stainless steel at room temperature

To explore wear mechanism of stainless steel used in nuclear pump, the wear properties and the worn surface characteristics of unlubricated 304L austenitic stainless steel on itself were investigated in air at room temperature. The experimental results demonstrated that the wear rate of the material decreased with the increase of the wear time. The friction coefficient fluctuated severely when the applied load was 120 N. At 120 N the wear rate was much higher than that of the applied load of 70 N. At 70 N the wear rate did not show much difference from that of 30 N. The wear mechanism was adhesive and abrasive wear under different load at the initial stage of the wear test. Then, the main wear mechanism changed with the wearing time and the applied load.