Influence of pre-existing martensite on the wear resistance of metastable austenitic stainless steels

The effect of pre-existing martensite on the sliding wear behavior of a commercial metastable austenitic stainless steel was investigated. Two different steel conditions were considered: annealed (with a fully austenitic microstructure) and cold rolled, consisting of mixtures of austenite and martensite. Wear tests were carried out using ball on disc technique at constant velocity and different sliding distances. Correlation between microstructure and wear mechanisms was performed by X-ray diffraction, electron back-scattered diffraction and focus ion beam. Results show that wear resistance decreases at increasing the amount of pre-existing martensite. In this sense, more strain-induced martensite developed for cold rolled samples, hardening the surface and consequently reducing wedge formation, which induced material removal from the surface. The detailed analysis of the wear track demonstrated the formation of an ultrafine-grain layer just below the surface, not only for annealed but also for cold rolled steel.