Effect of thermal treatment on the wear behavior of lean duplex stainless steel and super duplex stainless steels

The duplex stainless steel (DSS) is a two phase microstructure of about equal proportion of austenite (chromiumnickel) and ferrite (chromium). Austenite is ductile in nature and ferrite is brittle in nature, this combination provides an excellent mechanical properties (hardness, impact toughness etc) and corrosion resistance [1]. This paper deals with the study of dry sliding wear of Lean duplex stainless steel (AISI 304) and super duplex stainless steel (AISI 310) as a function of heat treatment conditions. The wear test specimens were heat treated at 850°C and followed by oil quenching. These wear tests are carried out using pin on disk technique at; (i) constant sliding velocity and different sliding distances, (ii) constant sliding distance and different sliding velocity and (iii) varying load and the weight loss methodology is used to calculate the wear volume. Results related to the AISI 304 wear showed that the hardness introduced due to the presence of sigma phase plays an important role on wear behavior for this type of steel.