Research on impact abrasive wear performance of interfacial phase transition-reinforced particle-reinforced medium manganese steel composites

To address the technical bottleneck of poor resistance to impact-abrasive wear in traditional medium manganese steel, this study designs and prepares zirconia-toughened alumina particle-reinforced medium manganese steel composites (ZTA/MMS) based on the interfacial phase transformation strengthening mechanism. A synergistic strengthening mechanism combining the anti-plowing effect of ZTA particles and interfacial stress-induced martensitic transformation energy absorption is proposed. Results show that ZTA/MMS exhibits significantly higher abrasion resistance than the matrix. The wear loss first decreases and then increases with increasing impact energy and Mn content, which is closely related to the regulatory effect of Mn content on interfacial martensitic transformation. During impact abrasive wear, ZTA particles effectively inhibit the plowing effect of abrasives on the matrix; meanwhile, interfacial martensitic transformation can absorb impact energy, strengthen the constraint effect of the particles, and prolong their protective effect. The optimal wear resistance is achieved when the Mn content is 8% (ZTA/Mn8), with a wear resistance 2.6 times higher than that of the matrix. This work verifies that the introduction of interfacial phase transformation strengthening can significantly enhance the adaptability of ZTA/MMS to impact-abrasive wear service conditions, providing a novel design concept for developing high-performance anti-wear composites.