Dry sliding wear behaviour of medium carbon steel against an alumina disk

▶ We study the dry sliding wear behaviour of a medium carbon steel against an alumina disk in different heat treated conditions. ▶ The wear mechanism in the hardened and tempered steel involves an initial adhesive wear followed by an intermediate oxidative wear and final adhesive (at 30 N and 40 N load) or abrasive (at 45 N load) wear. ▶ At lower (30 N) and higher (45 N) normal loads the wear mechanism in forced air cooled steel consists of alternate regimes of adhesive wear and oxidative wear and an initial oxidative wear regime followed by an adhesive wear regime at an intermediate load (40 N). ▶ The hardened and tempered steel exhibits better wear resistance at lower normal loads (30 N and 40 N) but inferior wear resistance at higher load (45 N) as compared to the forced air cooled steel.