The Effects of Novel Surface Treatments on the Wear and Fatigue Properties of Steel and Chilled Cast Iron.

Contact fatigue driven wear is a principal design concern for gear and camshaft engineering of power systems. To better understand how to engineer contact fatigue resistant surfaces, the effects of electroless nickel and hydrogenated diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coatings on the fatigue life at 108 cycles of SAE 52100 steel were studied using ultrasonic fatigue methods. The addition of DLC and electroless nickel coatings to SAE 52100 bearing steel had no effect on the fatigue life. Different inclusion types were found to affect the stress intensity value beyond just the inclusion size, as theorized by Murakami. The difference in stress intensity values necessary to propagate a crack for Ti (C,N) and alumina inclusions was due to the higher driving force for crack extension at the Ti (C,N) inclusions and was attributed to differences in the shape of the inclusion: rhombohedral for the Ti (C,N) versus spherical for the oxides. A correction factor was added to the Murakami equation to account for inclusion type. The wear properties of DLC coated SAE 52100 and chilled cast iron were studied using pin-on-disk tribometry and very high cycle ultrasonic tribometry. A wear model that includes sliding thermal effects as well as thermodynamics consistent with the wear mechanism for DLCs was developed based on empirical results from ultrasonic wear testing to 108 cycles. The model fit both ultrasonic and classic tribometer data for wear of DLCs. Finally, the wear properties of laser hardened steels - SAE 8620, 4140, and 52100 - were studied at high contact pressures and low numbers of cycles. A design of experiments was conducted to understand how the laser processing parameters of power, speed, and beam size, as well as carbon content of the steel, affected surface hardness. A hardness maximum was found at approximately 0.7 wt% carbon most likely resulting from increased amounts of retained austenite. The ratcheting contact fatigue model of Kapoor was found to be useful in predicting the wear results. The empirical model of Clayton and Su and extended by Afferente and Ciavarella, also provided reasonable semi-quantitative contact fatigue life models for these steels.PHDMaterials Science and EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93850/1/jwcarrol_1.pd