Wear behavior of light-weight and high strength Fe-Mn-Ni-Al matrix self-lubricating steels

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2018.09.070

Abstract

Abstract:

The good combination of mechanical and tribological properties for self-lubricating materials is crucial. In this work, novel self-lubricating Fe-16.4Mn-4.8Ni-9.9Al-xC (wt%) steels containing graphite phase were fabricated using mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering. The compositions of the steels were designed by using thermodynamic calculation, and the effect of carbon addition on the microstructure was further investigated. The steel possesses high hardness of 621 HV, high yield strength of 1437 MPa and good fracture toughness at room temperature. The yield strengths are still above 600 MPa at 600 °C. The tribological behavior and mechanical properties from room temperature to 800 °C were studied, and the wear mechanisms at elevated temperatures were discussed. The steel has a stable friction coefficient of 0.4 and wear rate in a magnitude of 10^-6 mm³/N·m below 600 °C. The good tribological properties of the steels were mainly attributed to the high hardness, lubrication of graphite and stable surface oxide layer.

Key words: Metal matrix composites, Mechanical alloying, Mechanical properties, Tribological properties, Alloy design

Liuliu Han, Kun Li, Cheng Qian, Jingwen Qiu, Chengshang Zhou, Yong Liu. Wear behavior of light-weight and high strength Fe-Mn-Ni-Al matrix self-lubricating steels[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2019, 35(4): 623-630.

Figures/Tables 13

Table 1 Contents of carbon in different steels.

Samples	Powders composition (wt.%)		C content after SPS (wt.%)
	Ball milled FeMnNiAl powder	Carbon	C content after SPS (wt.%)
C₀	100	/	0.28
C₁	99	1	0.86
C₂	98	2	1.53
C₃	97	3	2.50
C₄	96	4	3.45

Fig. 1. The phase diagram of Fe-16.4Mn-4.8Ni-9.9 Al-xC system based on the CALPHAD.

Fig. 2. XRD patterns of (a) Fe-16.4Mn-4.8Ni-9.9Al powders with different milling time and (b) the SPS-ed steels.

Fig. 3. Microstructures of (a) C0, (b) C1, (c) C2, (d) C3, (e) magnified image of (d), and (f) C4 sintered at 1100 °C.

Fig. 4. Typical SEM-BSE image and the corresponding elemental mappings in EPMA of Fe, Al, Ni, Mn, C in C3 steel.

Fig. 5. (a) The plastic section in the compression curves of C0 and C3 steels at room temperature, and (b) the compression curves of C3 steel at elevated temperatures.

Fig. 6. COFs with sliding time and their tribological properties (a) COF of C0, C1, C2, C3 and C4 at room temperature, (b) hardness, wear rate and average COFs, (c) the COFs of C3 at different testing temperatures and (d) wear rate and averages COF of the C3 steels with temperature.

Fig. 7. Morphologies of worn surfaces: (a), (b), (c) and (d) are of C3 steel tested at 200, 400, 600 and 800 °C. The compositions of the marked regions are listed in Table 2.

Fig. 8. 3D profiles of the worn scars and profilometer traces across the worn tracks of the C3 steel: (a), (b), (c) and (d) are tested in air at 200, 400, 600 and 800 °C, respectively.

Table 2 Compositions of the regions of the worn surfaces marked in Fig. 7.

Regions	Compositions (wt.%)
Regions	Fe	Mn	Ni	Al	C	O	Si
1	42.3 ± 0.6	9.7 ± 0.2	3.0 ± 0.1	5.6 ± 0.2	4.0 ± 0.4	34.1 ± 0.5	1.3 ± 0.1
2	50.0 ± 1.0	11.3 ± 0.4	3.4 ± 0.2	6.3 ± 0.3	5.3 ± 0.6	22.9 ± 0.9	0.8 ± 0.1
3	49.1 ± 0.7	11.4 ± 0.4	3.0 ± 0.3	6.3 ± 0.2	4.8 ± 0.5	24.5 ± 1.7	0.9 ± 0.1
4	41.8 ± 0.4	10.2 ± 0.1	2.8 ± 0.2	5.5 ± 0.1	3.9 ± 0.1	34.5 ± 0.3	1.3 ± 0.1
5	40.6 ± 2.3	9.7 ± 0.5	1.9 ± 0.1	4.0 ± 0.1	3.4 ± 0.3	38.3 ± 1.9	2.1 ± 0.9
6	42.0 ± 1.4	10.3 ± 0.2	2.4 ± 0.1	4.5 ± 0.2	3.4 ± 0.4	34.7 ± 0.8	2.7 ± 0.2
7	42.1 ± 1.1	12.1 ± 0.9	0.2 ± 0.1	0.3 ± 0.1	3.7 ± 0.3	40.1 ± 0.6	1.5 ± 0.2

Fig. 9. Micro-beam XRD patterns of C3 steel after testing at elevated temperatures corresponding to the regions in Fig. 7.

Fig. 10. Hardness-density diagram of Fe-matrix materials and self-lubricating materials.

Table 3 Mechanical properties of C0 and C3 steels and other PM HEA self-lubricating materials.

Materials	C₀	C₃	CoCrFeNi BaF₂/ CaF₂^{[5] [5]}	CoCrFeNi Graphite/MoS₂^{[6] [6]}
Density (g/cm³)	6.82 ± 0.03	6.49 ± 0.03	7.51 ± 0.07	7.39 ± 0.05
Relative density (%)	99.8 ± 0.1	99.2 ± 0.1	99.3	/
Hardness (HV)	576 ± 15	621 ± 7	151 ± 7	271 ± 14
Yield strength (MPa)	1004 ± 8	1437 ± 41	468 ± 8	610 ± 13
Compressive strength (MPa)	1969 ± 31	2286 ± 64	787 ± 9	921 ± 16
Ultimate plasticity strain (%)	22.8 ± 0.3	16.8 ± 1.1	15.8 ± 1.1	7.5 ± 1.2
Fracture toughness (MPa m^1/2)	20.3 ± 0.3	17.7 ± 0.2	18.3 ± 1.9	14.3 ± 1.7

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