Investigations on dry sliding wear and friction behaviour of alloy steel obtained by powder metallurgy

Abstract

The present work investigates the dry sliding wear and friction behaviour of an alloy steel developed through powder metallurgy. Prealloyed Atomet 4601 powder was thoroughly mixed with elemental powders of 0.35 C, 0.25 Mn, 0.1 Si and 0.9 Cr (in wt. %) to create this alloy steel, whose composition closely matches EN24 (AISI 4340) wrought steel. The dry sliding friction and wear test experiments were performed in a pin-on-disc tribometer. For the various cases considered in friction and wear tests, the wear rate is lowest (0.32 × 10–3 mm3/m) at 15 N and 1.77 m/s and highest (1.02 × 10–3 mm3/m) under severe conditions of 32.5 N and 2.83 m/s. The coefficient of friction is highest (0.673) at 15 N and 0.71 m/s and lowest (0.1311) at 32.5 N and 2.83 m/s. Subsequently, regression models are developed based on experimental results and the interaction effect of load and speed on the response parameters are plotted using MATLAB. An R2 value of 0.98 indicates a strong correlation between the response and the input variables. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses of the most worn specimens revealed carbides and oxides in the ferrite grain matrix, with adhesive, abrasive and oxidative wear being the primary mechanisms observed

Keywords

• powder metallurgy
• prealloyed powder
• sliding wear
• atomet 4601