Evolution of tribo-magnetization during sliding of ferromagnetic materials

Abstract

Sliding-induced subsurface microstructure evolution is believed to be decisive for determining the friction and wear performance of metallic contacts as well as the development of tribo-magnetization. This expects to develop a new prediction method of wear state by elucidating the correlation between subsurface microstructure evolution and corresponding magnetic domain changes. Herein, subsurface microstructure evolution including crystal and magnetic domain under tribological action is investigated experimentally. Our results demonstrate that dislocation mediated plastic deformation decisively influences microstructural changes during tribological contact, further determining the magnetic domain structure. Specifically, sliding-induced plastic deformation causes an increase in the width of magnetic domains, but depth-dependent derived microstructure formed under severe plastic deformation such as the refined grains and sub-grains, in turn, promoted the refinement of magnetic domains and their discontinuity, forming depth-dependent magnetic domain structure. These results are helpful to clarify the evolution of tribo-magnetization and the pinning effect of dislocations on magnetic domains.