Three-body Abrasive Wear Tests Research Articles

Mechanical and abrasive wear behavior of carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composite with and without fly ash cenospheres

Carbon fabric reinforced epoxy and carbon fabric reinforced epoxy containing different weight fraction of silane-treated fly ash cenospheres filled composites were cast, sectioned, and subjected to three-body abrasive wear tests for evaluating the abrasive wear behavior. Mechanical characterization was done and a comparison was made between the different samples. Abrasive wear tests were performed on a rubber wheel abrasion tester under different loads, abrading distances using quartz and silica sand as abrasives. The results showed that both unfilled carbon fabric reinforced epoxy and fly ash cenospheres filled carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composites exhibit differing magnitudes of wear volume loss, it being highest for unfilled carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composite. The data trends point to the fact that the wear volume and specific wear rate decreases with increasing fly ash cenospheres loading in carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composites. It was found that silane-treated fly ash cenospheres could effectively reduce the wear rate especially under silica sand as abrasives. To explain these differences, the worn surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscope and the features thus observed were correlated with the selected mechanical properties.

Taguchi approach for characterization of three-body abrasive wear of carbon-epoxy composite with and without SiC filler

Fiber–matrix interfacial bonding plays a critical role in controlling performance properties of polymer composites. Carbon fibers have major constraints of chemical inertness with the matrix and need the surface treatment to improve the adhesion with the matrix. In this work, parametric appraisal of three-body abrasive wear behavior was presented for silane treated carbon fabric reinforced epoxy (C-E) composites with and without silane treated silicon carbide (SiC) as filler. The fiber content was fixed at 60 wt.%, while the weight fraction of SiC was varied (5 and 10 wt.%) to obtain three different compositions. Three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted using design of experiments approach based on Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays. The findings of experiments indicate that the wear loss is greatly influenced by load and grain size of abrasive. An optimal parameter combination was determined, which leads to maximization of abrasion resistance. Inclusion of SiC filler reasonably increased the abrasion resistance of C-E composite. Analysis of variance results showed that the load significantly influenced the abrasion of SiC filled C-E composites. Efforts were also made to correlate the abrasive wear performance of SiC filled C-E composites using artificial neural network (ANN). The wear behavior of composite by ANN prediction closely matched the experimental results and finally, optimal wear settings for minimum wear were identified.

Multiple Response Optimization of Three-Body Abrasive Wear Behaviour of Graphite Filled Carbon-Epoxy ComPosites Using Grey-Based Taguchi Approach

The three-body abrasive wear behaviour of carbon fabric reinforced epoxy (C-E) composites has been evaluated by the addition of graphite (G) particles as a secondary reinforcement. Three-body abrasive wear test were conducted using dry sand rubber wheel abrasion tester as per ASTM G-65 with three process parameters load, abrading distance and filler content. To assess the abrasive wear behaviour of particulate filled C-E composites satisfying multiple performance measure, grey-based Taguchi approach has been adopted. The experiments were designed according to Taguchi’s orthogonal array (L¬27). The grey relational analysis was applied to convert a multi response process optimization to a single response. Using analysis of variance, significant contributions of process parameters have been determined. The results indicate that the addition of graphite particles into C-E composite increased the wear resistance considerably. It was observed that highest wear resistance of C-E composite was achieved with incorporation of 10 wt. % of graphite filler. Results indicate that the filler content and grit size of abrasive paper were found to be the most significant factor which has influence on the abrasive wear of C-E composite. The worn surface features were examined through scanning electron microscope to probe the wear mechanism.

COMPARISON OF SLIDING WEAR AND THREE-BODY ABRASIVE WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF PLAIN CARBON STEEL

Sliding wear and three-body abrasive wear characteristics of plain carbon steel (0.19C-0.72Mn) were compared to understand mechanisms of both wear in the steel. Microstructure of the steel was varied by heat treatments, and effects of microstructure as well as hardness on both wear were investigated. Dry sliding wear tests were carried out at room temperature using a pin-on-disk wear tester against AISI 52100 bearing steel. Three-body abrasive wear tests were performed using a ball-cratering abrasive wear tester employing angular SiC abrasives. The sliding wear proceeded with subsurface deformation and consequent fracture, while micro ploughing and cutting were major mechanisms of the abrasive wear. Hardness alone failed to characterize the sliding wear of the steel. Subsurface strain-hardening and uniform-deformation were principal controlling factors for the sliding wear, while hardness was the factor to control the abrasive wear of the steel under the given test condition.

An investigation on low stress abrasive wear characteristics of high performance engineering thermoplastic polymers

► Low stress abrasive wear on various unreinforced thermoplastic polymers. ► Abrasive wear rates strongly influenced by the applied load and type of polymeric materials. ► Semicrystalline polymers reflected ductile failure mode and amorphous polymers by brittle failure mode. ► A correlation between wear rates of polymers with various combinations of mechanical properties. Low stress (three-body) abrasive wear tests have been carried out on various unreinforced thermoplastic polymers using a rubber wheel abrasion test (RWAT) rig. Wear studies have been carried out using angular silica sand particles of size ranging between 150 and 250 μm and used as dry and loose abrasives. Abrasive wear studies was carried out at a constant sliding velocity ( v = 2.4 m/s) of rubber wheel and at different loads (5–20 N). The results showed that abrasive wear rates were strongly influenced by the applied load and type of polymeric material. The worn surfaces have been observed using optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) to understand the possible wear mechanisms involved during material removal processes. It was observed that semicrystalline polymers reflected ductile failure mode whereas amorphous polymers dominated by brittle failure mode. Efforts were made to correlate the abrasive wear rates with various combinations of mechanical properties. Possible correlations between abrasive wear rates with mechanical properties are reported.

Three-Body Abrasive Wear Behavior of Low Carbon Fe–B Cast Alloy and Its Microstructures Under Different Casting Process

This study investigates the effect of semi-solid processing on the microstructures, mechanical properties of low carbon Fe–B cast alloy. The as-cast microstructure of Fe–B cast alloy consists of the eutectic boride, pearlite, and ferrite. Compared with the coarse eutectic borides in the ordinary alloy, the eutectic boride structures in the semi-solid alloy are greatly refined. Moreover, the boride area fraction, Rockwell hardness, impact toughness, etc., before and after heat treatment under different casting methods are also investigated systemically. The wear behaviors of low carbon Fe–B cast alloy are studied by three-body abrasive wear tester. The wear weight loss of semi-solid Fe–B cast alloy is lower than that of the ordinary Fe–B cast alloy because of the lower average boride area for semi-solid specimen. Meanwhile, the wear mechanism of the low carbon Fe–B cast alloy under different casting process is depicted and analyzed by using the physical models.

Mechanical and Three-body Abrasive Wear Behavior of Carbon-Epoxy Composite With and Without Graphite Filler

Fiber and particulate reinforced polymeric composites are known to possess high strength and attractive wear resistance in dry sliding conditions. Though the reinforcement and/filler type are known to control the properties, less is known about their tribo performance especially with graphite as filler material. How these composites perform in abrasive wear situations needs a proper understanding. Hence, the present investigation reports on the mechanical and three-body abrasive wear behavior of carbon fabric reinforced epoxy (C-E) and silane treated graphite filled C-E (Gr-C-E) composites. The mechanical properties were evaluated using Universal testing machine. In three-body wear tests, quartz particles of size 150-200 μm were used as dry and loose abrasives. Three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted using rubber wheel abrasion tester under different loads/abrading distances. The results showed that the wear volume increased with increasing abrading distance and the specific wear rate decreased with abrading distance/load and depends on filler loading. However, the presence of silane treated graphite filler in C-E showed a promising trend. Further, the abrasive wear volume of composites has been correlated with mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and percentage elongation. The worn surface features, when examined through scanning electron microscopy, showed more number of broken carbon fibers in C-E compared to graphite filled C-E composites.

Three-body abrasive wear behavior of CC/high-Cr WCI composite and its interfacial characteristics

The high-Cr white cast iron (WCI) reinforced with cemented carbide (CC) particles was prepared by using the vacuum infiltration casting process. The interfacial structure between CC particle and the iron matrix was analyzed with optical microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Owing to partial dissolution of the CC particles and diffusion of elements such as W, C, Cr and Fe, compounds such as Fe3W3C and Co3W3C were formed, which ensured metallurgical bonding at the interface. The wear behavior of the composite was studied by three-body abrasive wear tester. The wear tests included four periods (each period of 30min duration); with the increase of the periods, the wear volume loss of the composite decreased firstly until reached the minimum at the third period, and then it increased. Meanwhile, it increased gradually with increasing abrasive particle size in the tests. The wear volume loss of the CC/high-Cr WCI composite was much less than the heat-treated high-Cr WCI, but there was no significant difference in the wear volume loss between CC/high-Cr WCI composite and WC/high-Cr WCI composite.

Mechanical and three-body abrasive wear behaviour of PMMA/TPU blends

The blends of poly(methyl methacrlate) (PMMA) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) were prepared by a Brabender co-twin screw extruder. The mechanical and three-body abrasive wear behaviour of PMMA/TPU blends has been studied. Three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted using rubber wheel abrasion tester (RWAT) under different abrading distances at 200 rpm and 22 N load. A significant reduction in tensile strength and tensile modulus with an increase in TPU content in the blend formulation was observed. Three-body abrasive wear results indicate that the wear volume increases with increase in abrading distance for all the samples studied. However, neat PMMA showed better wear resistance as compared to PMMA/TPU blends. The worn surface features, as examined through scanning electron microscope (SEM), show matrix cracking and deep furrows in PMMA/TPU blends.

Three-Body Abrasive Wear Behaviour of Fiber Reinforced Vinyl Ester Composites

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are generally known to possess high strength and attractive wear resistance in dry sliding conditions. The behaviour of such composites performing in abrasive wear situations needs a proper understanding. Hence, in the present work of the three-body abrasive wear behaviour of two dimensional stitched carbon fabric, E-glass woven fabric and three dimensional E-glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites was investigated. Three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted using rubber wheel abrasion tester (RWAT) under different abrading distances at two loads, wherein the wear volume loss were found to increase and that of specific wear rate decrease. The results indicate that the type of fabric in vinyl ester have a significant influence on wear under varied abrading distance/loads. Further, it was found that carbon fabric reinforced vinyl ester composite exhibited lower wear rate compared to E-glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites. The worn surface features, as examined through scanning electron microscope (SEM), show higher levels of broken glass fiber in two dimensional glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composite compared to carbon fabric and three dimensional glass fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites.

Effect of Short Glass Fiber Content on Three-Body Abrasive Wear Behaviour of Polyurethane Composites

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are known to generally possess high strength and attractive wear resistance in dry sliding conditions involving adhesion transfer or fatigue. How such composites perform in abrasive wear situations needs a proper understanding. Hence, in this study, three-body abrasive wear behavior of short glass fiber (SGF) reinforced polyurethane (PU) composite is investigated. Three-body abrasive wear tests are conducted using rubber wheel abrasion tester (RWAT) at two different loads (i.e., 22 and 32 N) and increasing abrading distances (i.e., 150, 300, 450, and 600 m) respectively. The wear results of the SGF/PU composites indicate that the wear volume increased with increase in fiber content for both increased load/abrading distance. However, the specific wear rate decreases with increase in load. The abraded surface features of the composites are studied by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM).

Mechanical and three-body abrasive wear behaviour of three-dimensional glass fabric reinforced vinyl ester composite

The mechanical and three-body abrasive wear behaviour of two- and three-dimensional E-glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester composites were studied in this article. The mechanical properties were evaluated using universal testing machine as per ASTM D-638. Three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted using rubber wheel abrasion tester (RWAT) under different abrading distances at two loads, wherein the wear volume loss were found to increase and that of specific wear rate decrease. The results indicate that the three-dimensional glass woven fabrics in vinyl ester (G 3D–V) have significant influence on wear under varied abrading distance/loads. Further, it was found that G 3D–V composite exhibited lower wear rate compared to two-dimensional glass woven fabric reinforced vinyl ester (G 2D–V) composite. The worn surface features, as examined through scanning electron microscope (SEM), show ruptured glass fiber in G 2D–V composite compared to G 3D–V composites.

Nano-crystallization of steel wire and its wear behavior

As carbon steel wire is widely used in civil engineering and industry, it is quite important to increase its strength. In the present paper, a severe cold drawing approach is applied to increase strength and is shown to produce nano grains. With increasing true strain, the tensile strength increases continuously and the cementite flake thickness decreases correspondingly. It is observed by transmission electron microscopy that a significant amount of cementite flakes have been fragmented and dissolved at true strains. Finally, the grains are transformed to nano-sized crystals. Additionally, the cold drawn nano-sized steel wire has been knitted and filled with polyurethane to produce a composite material. Three-body abrasive wear tests show that the wear resistance of the test material is even better than that of high-Cr white cast irons.

Effect of phase stability on the wear resistance of white cast iron at 800 °C

The high temperature oxidation tests of Ni–Cr alloys which containing different alloying elements such as Mo, W, B, Cr and Ni were carried out through placing the specimen in a muffle for 100 h at 800 °C. In order to determine the effect of oxidation on the wear behavior of the alloys at elevated temperature, an interrupted oxidation-abrasion wear test was carried out on a high temperature three-body abrasive wear tester. Then the oxide and wear surfaces of the specimens were examined and the effect of the alloying elements on the oxidation and wear properties was discussed. Combining the obtained results, the following aspects are obtained. The high temperature oxidation stability of the carbide of the alloys can be improved by adding alloying elements Mo, W and B. And the sufficient amount of alloying elements Cr and Ni in the alloys can raise the chemical stability of the matrix effectively. The controlling factors affecting the wear behavior are the oxidation stability of carbide and the oxidation synergistic performance of carbide with matrix. The excellent wear resistant performance of the carbide phase in alloy can be obtained only when the matrix phase support it effectively. Accordingly, the alloy still can’t possess a good wear resistance when the oxidation synergistic performance of the carbide with matrix is poor, even the carbide oxidation stability is good.

Wear performance of the Fe-based alloy coatings produced by plasma transferred arc weld-surfacing process

Two Fe-based gas atomized powders, proposed to as metamorphic alloys (Armacor M and Armacor C), were weld-surfaced by the plasma transferred arc (PTA) process. The resultant deposits were subsequently characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and the microhardness tests. The wear performance of the two different coatings were investigated by the pin-on-disk dry sliding wear tests as well as three-body abrasive (DSRW) and two-body abrasive wear tests. Microstructural development during the solidification of each deposit is discussed. It is shown that Armacor M coating exhibits better wear performance than Armacor C coating for all wear testing investigated due to higher hardness and larger boride particles of Armacor M. The sliding wear resistance of both coatings follows a similar trend with the abrasive wear resistance. The wear rate of the pins for the pin-on-disk dry sliding wear testing is increased as the hardness of the counterpart disk is increased. It is also shown that wear rate and friction coefficient are the function of the applied stress. The XRD patterns in both the as-deposited coatings and worn surface do not show the presence of any significant amount of amorphous phase suggesting that crystalline–amorphous phase transformation has not occurred during the wear process.

Characterisation of wear properties of ultrafine-grained hardmetals using a special abrasive wheel test

Three-body abrasive wear tests were carried out on super ultrafine-grained hardmetals (WC intercept length about 0.2 μm) with different Fe, Ni, Co binder systems, on hardmetals with Co binder and on standard materials with coarser WC grains. Apart from the standard materials, the hardmetals were all produced in laboratory scale from commercial nanocrystalline WC powders from different companies. The practical application of these hardmetals is in the field of cutting dry wood. The main purposes of this work were to characterise the wear properties of the produced grades and to derive predictions from laboratory wear tests regarding practical applications. Therefore a new wear test apparatus was built. The wear results showed a logarithmic correlation with hardness and a threshold to the low wear region, which was exceeded by some grades, at binder mean free paths of less than 40 nm. Moreover the laboratory wear results correlate well with results from field testing. A tribofilm was found on the worn surface and characterised by scanning electron microscope (SEM), AFM and TEM. In an analysis of the wear mechanisms the role of this tribofilm must be considered.

Two-body and three-body abrasive wear properties of katsura wood

Two-body and three-body abrasive wear tests of katsura wood were carried out using abrasive paper and moving abrasive grains, respectively. The two-body and three-body abrasive wear properties were investigated and compared. The wear rate of two-body abrasive wear was two orders of magnitude larger than that of three-body abrasive wear. Moreover, two-body abrasive wear of katsura wood increased with higher applied surface pressure, whereas three-body abrasive wear did not always depend on the applied surface pressure. Based on these results and observation of the wear surface profiles, it is suggested that two-body abrasive wear is more affected by yield stress and surface microstructure, and three-body abrasive wear is more affected by the cutting action of moving abrasive grains. Furthermore, during wear tests with different abrasive grain sizes, critical grain size effects of two-body abrasive wear were observed at low applied surface pressures but not at high applied surface pressures. The critical grain size effects of three-body abrasive wear were observed at both low and high applied surface pressures.

Three-body abrasion of Al–SiC composites

While many works have been focused on the two-body abrasive wear of aluminum matrix composites, there are relatively few results on the three-body abrasion performance of these composites. In the present study, the three-body abrasion of aluminum matrix composites reinforced with silicon carbide particles (SiC p) has been investigated. The metal matrix composites (MMCs) were fabricated by a powder metallurgy route involving a final hot extrusion step, with Al 1100 matrix and α-SiC p reinforcement with mean sizes of 10, 27 and 43 μm, in the proportions of 5, 10 and 20 vol.%. Using a wet monolayer tester, three-body abrasive wear tests were conducted under a constant load against silicon carbide and alumina abrasives with four different grits of 320, 400, 600 and 1000. The microstructural characterizations were performed using light microscopy. The dominant wear mechanisms were identified using scanning electron microscopy. The influence of type of the abrasive particles on wear rate and dominating wear mechanism is reported. Relationships between size and volume fraction of the SiC p reinforcement and wear rate is discussed. It is shown that SiC p reinforcement increases the abrasion resistance against all the abrasives used. This increase is generally higher against alumina than silicon carbide abrasives.

An investigation on three-body abrasive wear test at elevated temperature

A high temperature three-body abrasive wear tester has been designed and made. In order to exhibit the effect of oxidation on the wear amount of specimen and to simulate various service conditions, the oxygen content in atmosphere, the time of exposing specimen in atmosphere and the intensity of abrasion can be controlled in the tester. In the temperature range 20–900 °C, both the discriminability of wear resistances of materials and the data reproducibility of the tester are quite satisfactory. Moreover, an intermittent oxidation-abrasion test procedure has been established for investigating the interaction of oxidation and abrasion at elevated temperature. By comparing the result of test performed in argon atmosphere with that in ambient atmosphere, the respective effects of oxidation and abrasion on volume loss of specimen can be clearly distinguished.

Fine-particle slurry wear resistance of selected tungsten carbide thermal spray coatings

The surface degradation of tungsten carbide based thermal spray coatings when exposed to fine-particle slurry abrasion has been investigated. The coatings that were studied contain binder-phase constituents consisting of either nickel or cobalt. The coatings were deposited onto test cylinders using a detonation gun device. After applying approximately 0.15 mm thickness of thermal spray coating, the coatings were ground, then diamond polished to achieve surface roughnesses of 0.03 μm Ra or less. The coatings were exposed to a three-body abrasive wear test involving zirconia particles (less than 3 μm diameter) in a water-based slurry. Results show that preferential binder wear plays a significant role in the wear of these tungsten carbide coatings by fine abrasives. In the comparison presented here, the coating containing nickel-based binder with a dense packing of primary carbides was superior in terms of retaining its surface finish upon exposure to abrasion. The coating containing a cobalt binder showed severe surface degradation.