Abrasive Wear Resistance of Plasticaly Deformed Carbon Steel

The scratch test is performed to measure the abrasion wear resistance of carbon steel after upsetting at different strain rate. Besides, the deformation effect during upsetting is discussed on the friction process involved during the scratching in order to get a better insight into the abrasive wear resistance of carbon steel after deformation. The study of scratch formation will be combined with an analysis of the friction values of the tested material. It was found that friction coefficient displayed by the scratched steel showed decreasing trend with increasing strain rate. The relative decrease in friction is highly pronounced at relatively higher loads. It can be concluded that scratching causes further strain hardening superimposed on that displayed by upsetting. The decrease of values of friction coefficient is related to the hardness increase of the carbon steel. Increasing the deformation of compression showed lower values of friction coefficient. The dependency of the friction coefficient on the applied load is clearly illustrated at the lowest strain rate. Wear of the tested material drastically decreases with increasing strain rate. As the load increases, wear increases. At the highest strain rate load shows no effect on wear. The effect of strain rate on wear is more pronounced than friction coefficient. This behavior can be explained on the basis that wear depends on the depth of stylus tip penetration in the surface. As the hardness of the material increases the depth decreases. Therefore, at the highest strain rate wear records the lowest values due to the relative higher values of strain hardening. This observation recommends the process of plastic deformation of surfaces to enhance abrasive wear resistance.