Improvement of fretting fatigue strength by carbon monoxide and catalyst activation under chemomechanical effects of fretting

Abstract

It is known that the fretting fatigue strength in hydrogen (H2) gas is lower than that in air. The objective of this study is to mitigate the hydrogen effect during the fretting fatigue test in H2 gas by adding carbon monoxide (CO) to the H2 environment. The expected CO effect was reduction in the hydrogen uptake into the material following deactivation of the catalytic surface where H2 molecules dissociate into H atoms. However, an unexpected result, which was unique in fretting, was obtained. The fretting fatigue test using JIS SUS304 austenitic stainless steel was performed in H2, argon (Ar), 2 vol% CO mixed H2, and 2 vol% CO mixed Ar gases. The fretting fatigue strengths in the CO-mixed gases were significantly improved. For instance, the fretting fatigue life at σa = 240 MPa was 8.8 × 105 cycles in the H2 and 107 cycles or longer in the CO mixed H2. The cause of the improved fretting fatigue strength was the formation of amorphous carbon between the contacting surfaces during the fretting. The carbon reduced the tangential force coefficient between the contacting surfaces from around 0.6 in the H2 to 0.2 or less in the CO mixed H2. The reduced tangential force resulted in improvement of the fretting fatigue strength. Although the detailed mechanisms of the carbon deposition were unclear, it is plausible that the catalytic action of the metal surface for the CO decomposition into C and O was activated by the effect of fretting, such as removal of the surface oxide layer and other chemomechanical effects.