The effect of specimen temperature on the fretting wear behaviour of a non-nitrided against nitrided high strength alloy steel contact pair

The fretting wear performance of the heterogeneous non-nitrided against nitrided contact pair of the high strength alloy steel, SCMV was investigated in the gross slip regime at ambient and elevated temperatures (120 and 150 °C). The tests were performed with displacement amplitudes of 25 and 100 μm at an applied normal load of 250 N using a cylinder-on-flat configuration. As the fretting contact temperature increases, the energy dissipation and total wear volume decreases for the same applied normal load irrespective of the displacement amplitude. The energy dissipation increases with increase in displacement amplitude for the same applied normal load. During fretting at ambient temperature, a substantial loss of material as wear debris was observed in the contact, whereas the overall loss of material from the contact significantly reduces with an increase in temperature. The variation in the tangential force coefficient and the total wear volume at elevated temperatures may be attributed to the sintering of oxide particles in the contact to form a protective debris bed. The worn surface morphology of the fretted specimen investigated using a scanning electron microscope shows the presence of wear debris in the wear track, oxide patches, delamination cracks, delamination cavities and discontinuities, scale like topography and plate-like wear debris. The abrasive action of the particles in the contact interface promoted wear at ambient temperature whereas at elevated temperatures, the compaction of the oxide particles reduced the wear. (paper)