EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF TRIBOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF BORON STEEL PLOUGHSHARE UNDER DRY SLIDING CONTACT

Abstract

Experimental evaluation of the tribological performance of boron steel ploughshare used for soil tillage operation has been studied under dry sliding contact. A ball-on-disc dry sliding tribological properties test was performed following ASTM standards. Surface morphology examination of the ploughshare sample was performed using optical microscopy. The effect of applied load, sliding speed, and sliding time on the tribological properties of the ploughshare sample was analyzed. Results showed that with increasing applied load from 2 to 10N, friction performance of the ploughshare material operated within the boundaries of 0.232≤µ≤0.325, 0.283≤µ≤0.378, 0.308≤µ≤0.381, 0.338≤µ≤0.405 at constant sliding speed and time of (5cm/s, 360s), (10cm/s, 540s), (15cm/s, 720s) and (20cm/s, 900s) respectively showing that friction increased as sliding speed and time increased with percentage increase of 22%, 8.8%, 9.7% and 16.3%, 0.8%, 6.3% for minimum and maximum friction respectively. Wear performance of the ploughshare material operated within the boundaries of 44.44≤WR≤94.44 x 10-6g/m, 16.67≤WR≤64.81 x 10-6g/m, 12.96≤WR≤53.70 x 10-6g/m, 18.89≤WR≤42.22 x 10-6g/m at constant sliding speed and time of (5cm/s, 360s), (10cm/s, 540s), (15cm/s, 720s) and (20cm/s, 900s) respectively showing that wear rate decreased as sliding speed and time increased with percentage decrease of 31.4%, 17.1%, 21.4% for maximum wear rate.