Nanoindentation and nanoscratching of a ferrite/austenite iron bi-crystal: An atomistic study

Molecular dynamics simulations are applied to investigate the wear/friction behavior of a ferrite/austenite iron bi-crystal, as a model system for duplex stainless steels. The plasticity of the ferrite phase is dominated by dislocations while both dislocations and stacking faults are the primary cause of plastic deformation of the austenite phase. Interestingly, the responses of tribological parameters vary depending on the scratch direction. For instance, the scratch hardness is increased by about 46% whereas the friction coefficient is reduced by about 22% when scratch starts from austenite to ferrite. At the interface, a local softening/hardening occurs because of dislocation-interface interaction. The present results demonstrate that martensitic phase transformation is responsible for experimentally observed high amount of ferrite of the pile-up.