Fretting on the cubic face of a single-crystal Ni-base superalloy at room temperature

Fretting experiments were conducted on the (1 0 0) crystal (cubic) face of a single crystal Ni-base superalloy in two directions, 〈1 0 0〉 and 〈1 1 0〉, to study the effect of crystallographic orientation on the fretting response in both partial slip and gross slip regimes. The study involved point contacts using a tungsten carbide (WC) ball with radius 10 mm tested at room temperature. Ball indentation was used to determine secondary crystallographic orientations. Under sufficiently high normal force, the friction on the cubic face in the 〈1 1 0〉 direction was larger than in the 〈1 0 0〉 direction. This difference can be explained by the extent of plastic deformation in the surface layer and associated microstructure changes, both of which depend on the coupling between the crystallographic orientation and the cyclic deformation field.