The wear induced crystallographic texture transition in Ti-29Nb-14Ta-4.5Zr alloy

In the present work, the tribological performance of solution treated Ti–27.96Nb–11.97Ta–5.02Zr (wt%) alloy has been assessed after 1000 m sliding at the applied load of 2N, 5N, 20N and 50N and sliding speed of 300 mm/s against Ti–6Al–4V ELI. The near-surface micro-texture evolution induced by frictional force has been investigated in detail using SEM-EBSD. According to the results, TNTZ alloy shows better tribological performance compared to Ti–6Al–4V ELI in all the applied loads. The signs of oxidation and adhesion wear were clearly observed on all the worn surfaces of the worn alloys. Low wear weight loss of TNTZ alloy at lower applied loads is due to the continuous substructure development as well as the formation of γ-fiber alignment texture along the sliding direction in absence of texture in the highly refined β grains. The results showed that the transition from γ-fiber texture to cube texture takes place with the increase of applied load to 50N and networked leading to brittle fracture and third body abrasive wear particle generation. These phenomena have a high influence on the wear rate of TNTZ alloy when the applied load increases. Neither the grain elongation nor the shear bands were formed in the subsurface of worn deformed specimens.