Wear resistance of bainite steels that contain aluminium

Abstract

Four steels containing Si + Al = 2 wt-% were investigated in this study. Three mixed microstructures, namely, bainite + martensite + retained austenite (MB+Ar), martensite + retained austenite (M+Ar) and low-temperature bainite + retained austenite (LB+Ar) were obtained. Wear resistance was determined by dry sliding friction testing under different conditions. Results showed that Al promoted the formation of oxide films during wear process, resulting in the improvement of wear resistance, especially under a high-load condition. Under the same hardness, the wear resistance of MB+Ar was improved by 65 and 100% compared with that of LB+Ar and M+Ar microstructures, respectively. At high temperature, the worn surface was covered by oxide films and the samples exhibited abrasive and adhesive wear mechanisms. However, at low temperature, the oxide films were difficult to generate on the worn surface; the adhesive wear mode was dominant and resulted in severe wear.

Keywords:

• Bainite
• Wear resistance
• Aluminium-containing steel

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Nature Science Foundation of Hebei Province (No. E2013203258).