Abrasive wear rate of boron carbide ceramics: Influence of microstructural and mechanical aspects on their tribological response

Boron carbide ceramics with systematic variations in microstructure were subjected to an abrasive wear test involving an abrasive slurry of SiC particles on a rotating steel ball as counterface and with a load of 5N. The total sliding distance was 70 m and a sliding speed of 0.2 ms−1 was used for all tests. This research work is a pioneering contribution on the analysis of the abrasive wear resistance of boron carbide as a function of grain size and porosity. In contrast to most ceramics, it is concluded that grain size is not directly relevant to the wear resistance, whereas porosity and hardness play the main role. The absence of surface pullout by brittle fracture is a relevant experimental feature in this material which results in mild wear. Our results are rationalized in terms of the classical Rabinowicz model, which gives a reasonable description of the wear response.