A comparison of dry sliding wear of Fe30Ni20Mn25Al25 at room temperature and elevated temperature

Dry sliding pin-on-disk wear tests were conducted in air on the nanostructured alloy Fe30Ni20Mn25Al25, which consists of alternating b.c.c. and B2 phases with interfaces aligned along <100> directions. The tests were run at both room temperature (298 K) and elevated temperature (673 K) against a 347 stainless steel counterface. The surfaces of the worn pins were examined using a combination of scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, focused ion beam milling and transmission electron microscopy. The wear tracks on the disks were analyzed using both optical microscopy and optical profilometry. It was found that the pins showed lower wear rates at elevated temperature compared to room temperature. Debris collected during the wear tests consisted of materials from both the pin and the disk. The pins undergoing elevated temperature wear tests showed a porous sublayer due to debris compaction consisting of Fe, Cr, Mn, Al and Ni, that is from both the pin and the disk. By comparison, the surfaces of the worn pins undergoing room-temperature wear tests had a heavily deformed sublayer and there were obvious voids between the sublayer and the original homogeneous pin material beneath. Wear occurred by both two-body and three-body abrasion at both temperatures.