Reciprocating-sliding wear behavior of nanostructured and ultra-fine high-silicon bainitic steels

The reciprocating sliding wear behavior of high-silicon bainitic steels has been studied on microstructures obtained from two alloys containing 0.3 and 1.0 wt% C, which were isothermally transformed between 200 and 425 °C. Results show an order of magnitude improvement in the wear resistance of the nano-scaled bainitic structures with respect to the ultra-fine with similar hardness values. The scale of the microstructure and the level of retained austenite determine the wear mechanism and eventually, the wear rate.