Impact of corrosion on sliding wear properties of low-alloyed carbon steel

Corrosion phenomena play an important role in limiting the lifetime of tribological systems. It is well known out of different studies that synergistic effects between mechanical sliding and corrosion often lead to increased volume losses when compared to their individual contributions. The aim of this work is to describe the tribological performance of low-alloyed C-steel under sliding/corrosion conditions at specific oxygen-free environments using CO2 atmosphere and brine. Low-alloyed C-steel was used as base material and was tribologically loaded in a novel close-to-reality test rig under reciprocating sliding contact against spray Ni-based coating counterpart. Additionally, pure sliding tests were carried out under N2 atmosphere with distilled water for comparison. Different microscopic methods were applied (e.g., SEM-FIB) for understanding the sliding/corrosion phenomena in addition to quantitative wear measurements by mass loss. The results show a significant influence of the microstructure on the tribological performance under sliding/corrosion conditions, where the formation of corrosion siderite layers (FeCO3) and their tribological properties plays a crucial role.