High Temperature Wear Processes

Moving machine assemblies are increasingly exposed to extreme operating conditions involving high temperatures owing to demands on higher power densities, high performance/efficiency and extreme environments. The changes in surface and near surface properties of contacting surfaces caused by exposure to high temperature and deformation govern the occurrence of friction, wear and material transfer of the tribological system. However, these changes have not been thoroughly investigated. In order to enable development of new products and processes, there is a need for new knowledge pertaining to tribological phenomena occurring at elevated temperatures.One of the most commonly used engineering materials is steel as it offers a good compromise between performance and cost even at high temperatures. For example, prehardened (quenched and tempered) tool steels are commonly used in hot forming dies can also be employed in other technological applications involving elevated temperatures. Although the research pertaining to hot stamping, and high temperature tribology in general, has significantly grown during the last years there are still knowledge gaps that need to be bridged. Adhesion and abrasion have been identified as the most dominant wear mechanisms in high temperature tribological systems but the detailed understanding of the mechanisms is still inadequate.The objective of this work is therefore to obtain a deeper understanding of the tribological phenomena associated with adhesion and abrasion that takes place at high temperatures. Unidirectional sliding wear tests have been conducted in order to investigate the influence of contact pressure and temperature on the wear and friction characteristics of tool steel and boron steel pair. Tribological studies involving boron steel, tool steels and heat-treated high-Si steels in a three body abrasive environment were also carried out with a view to explore the effect of temperature on the wear rate, wear mechanisms and to correlate this with material properties like hot hardness and toughness.The results from the unidirectional sliding tests showed that the frictional behaviour of tool steel and boron steel is load and temperature dependent. In general the friction coefficient decreases as both temperature and load are increased as a result of the formation of oxide layers. At temperatures above 200 °C, the compaction and sintering of these layers led to the formation of a wear protective glaze layer. Consequently, the wear rate for both materials decreased at elevated temperatures. Additionally, a friction and wear mechanisms map was developed for the investigated materials.In the case of abrasive wear tests, the results showed that the main wear mechanism presented for each material varied with temperature. In general, a transition from micro-ploughing to a combination of micro-cutting and micro-ploughing was present. The tool steels and boron steel showed a decrease in wear rate in the range of 100 to 400 °C compared to that at room temperature. This was attributed to the toughness in case of the tool steel and the formation of a protective tribolayers for the boron steel. Above 400 °C the wear rate increased for these three materials mainly due to the recovery and recrystallization processes. The wear rate of the high-Si steels increased with testing temperature. At 500 °C, these steels had the same hardness and the differences in wear were attributed to the changes in the material toughness.Godkänd; 2014; 20140408 (sinher); Nedanstående person kommer att hålla licentiatseminarium för avläggande av teknologie licentiatexamen. Namn: Sinuhe Hernandez Ämne: Maskinelement/Machine Elements Uppsats: High Temperature Wear Processes Examinator: Professor Braham Prakash, Institutionen för teknikvetenskap och matematik, Luleå tekniska universitet Diskutant: Assoc. Prof. Ph.D; Head, Metallic Materials and Tech. Dept. Bojan Podgornik, Institute of Metals and Technology, Ljubljana, Slovenia Tid: Fredag den 16 maj 2014 kl 10.00 Plats: E231, Luleå tekniska universite