Evaluation of residual stress induced by wear in AISI 4340 steel

Mechanical components and structures wear out as a result of friction between surfaces in relative motion. The objective of this work is to evaluate the residual stress induced during a pin-on-disk wear test against a counter-body of steel AISI E 52100 with 6.0 mm diameter. The disk specimens were quenched and tempered AISI 4340 with different mechanical treatment; shot-peened and not shot peened. The pin-on-disk tests were made in six steps and the residual stress were evaluated after each one by X-ray diffraction with sin²ψ method. Wear track profile was obtained using contact profilometry. The wear rate of the shot peened samples was considerably lower than the wear rate of the other conditions. It was also possible to notice that compressive residual stresses induced by shot peening treatment contributed to this effect even though they were modified by the residual stress induced during the pin-on-disk test. (author)