The effect of substitutional alloying elements on the impact wear rate of medium carbon steels related to delamination and quasi-nanometer wear mechanisms

The wear behavior of four medium carbon alloy steels treated by high-frequency induction hardening under high-energy impact contact loading was studied in this paper. The results show that the turning of wear curves occurs during the impact wear tests, which indicates that the wear mechanism has been transformed from delamination to quasi-nanometer wear. The wear rate decreases with the total content of substitutional alloying elements (SAE) in delamination mechanism, on the contrary, the wear rate increases in quasi-nanometer wear mechanism.

► The turning of wear curves occurs under high energy impact contact loading. ► The microstructure of worn surface is transformed from martensite to nano-structure. ► The wear mechanism is changed from delamination to quasi-nanometer wear. ► The wear rate decreases with the total content of alloying elements in delamination wear, on the contrary, the wear rate increases in quasi-nanometer wear.