Tribological Behavior of High Fraction Carbon Steel Alloys

Abstract

In this paper, coefficient of friction and wear rate of different steel materials are investigated and compared. Experiments are conducted on a pin-on-disk apparatus on different types of pin materials such as stainless steel SS304, stainless steel SS316, stainless steel SS202, and mild steel sliding against EN-31 disk. The experiments are performed on a group of specimens for duration of 10 min for various loads of 8, 12, and 16 kg in magnitude with disk speed of 380 rpm. The results show that the coefficient of friction varies with duration of rubbing and normal load at constant sliding velocity. In general, coefficient of friction increases for a certain duration of rubbing and after that it remains constant for the rest of the experimental time. The results obtained reveal that the coefficient of friction increases with the increase in normal load for all the tested materials. For the same operating condition, the magnitudes of the coefficient of friction and wear rate are different for different materials depending on normal load. The performance of steel with respect to wear is significantly governed by the chemical composition of material. Wear rate increases with the increase in normal load. Results have also shown that the wear of carbon steel is significantly reduced by adding more carbon content. Hence, it becomes imperative to analyze the wear characteristics of different types of steel materials, particularly SS304, SS316, SS202 and mild steel, sliding against EN-31 on a case-to-case basis in order to arrive at a more realistic assessment of wear performance.