The Tribological Properties of a Nano-Eutectic Fe1.87C0.13 Alloy Under Liquid Paraffine Lubrication

Abstract

The tribological properties of the nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy are investigated under liquid paraffine lubrication against AISI52100 steel ball at room temperature with varied applied load and sliding speed. As comparison, the annealed coarse-grained Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is also examined in the same testing condition. The wear rate of the two alloys increases with increasing applied load and sliding speed. The wear resistance of the nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is about 2-20 times higher than that of the annealed Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy at present experimental conditions. The friction coefficients of the two alloys are almost same. The annealed Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy shows serious wear under high applied load and sliding speed. The worn surfaces of the two alloys are analyzed by a scanning electron microscope. With increase in the applied load and sliding speed, the wear mechanism of the nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is transformed from plowing to fatigue flaking pits, whereas that of the annealed coarse-grained Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is transformed from plowing to fatigue flaking pits then to severe fatigue wear.

Tribological Properties of a Nano-Eutectic Fe1.87C0.13 Alloy Under Water Environment

“…Thus, the wear mechanism of the nanoeutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is transformed from plowing and corrosion wear to fatigue crack with increasing applied load, whereas that of the annealed coarse-grained Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is transformed from plowing and corrosion wear to fatigue flaking. The wear resistance of the nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy was lower than that of the annealed coarse-grained Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy for low applied load under the water environment, in contrast to the results for the same alloy under oil-lubricated conditions [14]. The Vickers microhardness of the two alloys (3.8 and 2.2 GPa, respectively, for the nano-eutectic and annealed Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloys) is obviously lower than that of the AISI52100 steel ball (8.3 GPa), and the surfaces of both Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloys contact with matching asperities on the AISI52100 steel ball, leading to plowing wear.…”

“…The fresh frictional surfaces of the nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy have higher reactive activity than those of the annealed coarse-grained Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy [14]. In addition, higher sliding speed and applied load can increase the tribochemical reaction rate.…”

“…Recent work has revealed that water is an important factor in the friction behavior of materials [10,15]. The present authors have previously studied oil-lubricated tribological properties of bulk nano-eutectic Fe-C alloy and shown that nanostructured alloy differs in terms of tribological performance from coarse-grained material [14]. Herein, we report tribological properties of nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy under a water lubrication environment, and compare them with those of coarse-grained Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy.…”

“…The wear performance of nanostructured materials appears to be extremely sensitive to the environment in which sliding occurs [10,11]. As is well known, oil lubrication is the first choice for machines in most cases [12][13][14]. However, in the food and pharmaceutical industries, oil lubrication is not a good choice, as leakage of lubrication oil would lead to contamination and create a possible fire risk; therefore, it is important to study tribological properties of bulk nanostructured materials under clean water lubrication.…”

Tribological behavior of Fe70Ni30 alloy with nanoscale twins under liquid paraffin lubrication

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Because the large volume fraction of grain boundaries could block the dislocation movement, 3 the strength and hardness of the nanostructured metals improves significantly, which is beneficial to the enhancement of their wear resistance. Wang et al 4 reported that due to the hardness improvement, the wear resistance of nano-eutectic Fe 1.87 C 0.13 alloy is about 2-6 times higher than that of the annealed coarse-grained counterpart.…”