Abrasive wear behavior of a pearlitic (0.4%C) steel microalloyed with vanadium

Abrasion induced subsurface deformation and work hardening along with related microstructural changes of the pearlitic (0.4%C) steel with vanadium additions has been examined. The abrasion testing was performed using a pin-abrasion apparatus in which a small pin of the specimen was ground on an abrasive paper at an applied load of 2.1 N and a sliding speed of 0.66 m/s. Crushed silica particles (size: 15–67 μm) were used as the abrasive medium. It has been found that the steel subjected to precipitation hardening of vanadium carbide exhibited higher wear rate than the vanadium free steel, although the bulk hardness by Vickers indenter of the microalloyed steel was higher than that of the vanadium free one. The nanohardness of the vanadium free steel increased with decreasing the contact depth below the abraded surface to about 2.1 times the original value, while the precipitation hardened steel to about 1.4 times. The varying nature of influence of interlamellar spacing and the vanadium addition on the wear response of the pearlitic steel has been discussed in terms of the differences in resistance to plastic deformation and especially the differences in energy consumption during sliding.