On the dry wear behaviour of ASTM 4032 H steel against the titanium carbide metal matrix composite in the early stage

This study evaluated the wear of ASTM 4032 H steel (0.30C, 0.30Cu, 0.70Mn, 0.1Cr, 0.25Mo, 0.22Si, 0.02P, 0.05S in wt.%) during sliding against a titanium carbide metal matrix composite which consisted of round TiC micro-grains dispersed in a steel matrix. A Latin square design was applied to determine the dominant factor in the wear. The ANOVA results showed that the load was a significant factor in the wear rate, while the sliding velocity and TiC content of the composite were not. The wear rate exhibited non-linearity as the load increased. The main experiment with the composite specimens which had various treated matrixes was carried out to evaluate the repeatability of the test method and discover the reason for the non-linearity of the wear rate according to the load. According to the results, the variance of measurements proved that this test method is reliable and the ANOVA revealed that the metal-to-metal contact caused a sudden change in the wear rate of the steel.