Comparative study of sliding wear characteristics of Ni and N austenitic steels

Abstract

Stainless steel plays an important role in the modern world and austenitic stainless steels represent more than two-thirds of the total stainless steel world production. Ni austenitic stainless steels do not have adequate mechanical properties to encounter wear application; moreover, Ni is very expensive. Extensive research and development work has been motivated for full or partial replacement of Ni in the steels. N bearing austenitic stainless steels are becoming a popular substitute to Ni austenitic steels owing to their low cost and superior mechanical properties. Wear characteristics of N and Ni austenitic stainless steels are evaluated and compared. Wear characteristics are evaluated for different parameters, such as sliding distance, varying load and sliding velocities. Extensive studies on the wear debris and worn surface have been conducted to understand operative modes and mechanism of wear. Results show that mechanical properties of N austenitic stainless steel are much superior. With increasing sliding distance initially a running-in period is observed followed by steady state. However, the study with load shows a continuously increasing trend of wear rate with load. With increasing the sliding velocity, the wear rate initially increases and attains a maximum, and then starts decreasing and attains a minimum; however with further increasing the sliding velocity, the wear rate again starts increasing for different combinations of applied loads and sliding velocities oxidative, oxidative metallic and metallic modes are observed. © 2009 W. S. Maney & Son Ltd.