Effect of laser energy on the fretting wear resistance of femtosecond laser shock peened Ti6Al4V

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Femtosecond laser shock peening (FsLSP) is performed on engineering alloys to improve their wear resistance in dry and oil-lubricated sliding conditions. In this study, the influence of FsLSP on the fretting wear behavior of Ti6Al4V alloy is studied. For this purpose, FsLSP treatment, with laser energies of 50, 100, 150, and 200 μJ, is performed on a Ti6Al4V sample which mainly consists of α-phase. Topographical investigations using white light interferometry reveal that with increase in the laser energy, the coverage area of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) decreases, and the extent of surface pitting damage increases, leading to higher surface roughness. While surface hardness also initially increases with increasing laser energy, it remains invariant when the energy is increased beyond 150 μJ. Sub-surface microstructural investigations and kernel average misorientation maps obtained from electron backscatter diffraction reveal that FsLSP treatment leads to the formation of severely deformed and mildly deformed layers along the depth of the alloy surface. Surface hardening due to FsLSP is attributed to the activation of prismatic <a>, basal <a> slip systems, and 101¯2, 112¯3 tensile twins in the severely deformed zone along with grain refinement, which is an outcome of dynamic recrystallization. Fretting wear tests indicate that the coefficient of friction (CoF) of FsLSP treated alloys is consistently lesser than that of its as-received counterpart, whose CoF is 0.38. In contrast, the wear resistance, quantified by the wear rate, wear volume and wear depth, is highest in the sample treated with laser energy of 100 μJ but lower for the as-received as well as 150 and 200 μJ laser treated samples. These results are explained on the basis of the differences in the contact area, formation of surface hardening layer and the size and integrity of asperities on the surface, which in turn influences the dominant fretting wear mechanism.