Fretting wear behaviour of high strength alloy steel induced by plasma nitriding and post-oxidation

Abstract

Fretting wear is caused by a relative movement of the material surface on a small scale. Finding ways to reduce fretting wear is of great importance for extending equipment life and reducing maintenance costs. With the increase of load, the effecrt of fretting wear adhesion of surface treated material becomes more obvious. The materials treated with post-oxidation have stronger wear adhesion than those treated only with plasma nitriding, but the total wear volume is reduced. In this paper, the fretting wear of high strength steel alloy with different surface treatments is simulated by the finite element method. The coefficient of friction and wear volume can be obtained from the experimental results, and the wear coefficient is calculated using the wear energy model. The predicted two-dimensional wear profile curves (U-shape and W-shape wear profiles) under different wear conditions are compared with the experimental results. The W-shape wear profile is used to describe the adhesion state of the worn surface. In addition, the surface deformation and mechanical properties of U-shape and W-shape wear profiles are analysed. The simulation results show that double-sided wear and the addition of adhesive layer is important for the prediction of wear characteristics.