Fretting wear of the nitrided medium carbon steel under line contact condition at an elevated temperature
Industrial Lubrication and Tribology
ISSN: 0036-8792
Article publication date: 29 July 2019
Issue publication date: 1 February 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Fretting wear exists widely in the field of matching mechanical parts whereas previous research studies mostly focus on the point contact through a ball-plate tribometer. This paper aims to study the influence of wear debris on the fretting wear characteristics of the nitrided medium carbon steel under line contact condition at elevated temperature.
Design/methodology/approach
Fretting wear behavior of the nitrided medium carbon steel was experimentally investigated under line contact condition at elevated temperature and different normal loads without lubrication. Wear loss, worn surface and wear debris were studied to analyze the wear mechanism of nitrided steel.
Findings
The results showed that surface hardness of the medium carbon steel was notably improved because of the generation of a 230 µm nitrided case. Wear loss increased with the normal load, which was associated with the damage of a thin solid film formed by the wear debris, consisting of iron oxides and chromium oxide rather than only iron or iron oxides. The wear debris became partially amorphous and spherical because it was trapped within the contact interface and was ground, rolled, oxidized under line contact conditions. The spherical wear debris acted as a third body and formed a lubricating film between the contact faces. This lubricating film helped to stabilize the friction coefficient and reduced the wear rate, which further caused the acceleration of wear volume to gradually decrease. The wear mechanisms of the nitrided steel were oxidation wear, abrasive wear and fatigue spalling of the oxide layer.
Originality/value
The findings are helpful to understand the fretting wear behavior of the friction pair under line contact and enrich the fretting tribology theory.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M622890) and the Open Fund of National Engineering Research Center of Near-net-shape Forming Technology for Metallic Materials (2017007).
Citation
Wang, G., He, G., Qu, S., Li, H., Zhou, M. and Zhang, H. (2021), "Fretting wear of the nitrided medium carbon steel under line contact condition at an elevated temperature", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 73 No. 1, pp. 15-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILT-04-2019-0133
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited