The effect of grain size and martensitic transformation on the wear behavior of AISI 304L stainless steel

•Wear behavior of 304L stainless steels with 3 grain sizes were investigated.•Grain size and normal load are completely effective on wear behavior.•Ultrafine grained sample had better wear resistance under low normal loads.•This behavior was attributed to the martensitic transformation during wear.

In the present study, a combination of cold rolling and subsequent annealing was used to produce an AISI 304L stainless steel with different grain sizes (650 nm, 3 μm and 12 μm). Wear behavior of the steel was subsequently examined using dry sliding wear test under different loads of 10 N, 20 N and 30 N. Different microstructural characterizations were conducted on the samples. The results demonstrated that the ultra-fine grained steel (650 nm grain size) had better wear resistance under normal loads of 10 N and 20 N, whereas under the normal load of 30 N, it showed weak wear resistance as compared to the steel with larger grain size (3 μm and 12 μm). This behavior can be attributed to the amount of induced martensitic transformation formed during the wear test. This transformation was evaluated using XRD analysis and quantified by Ferritescope measurements. Wear mechanism was recognized as delamination in the early stages of the wear test and the mixture of delamination and abrasion for higher distances.

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