Damping behavior of physical vapor-deposited TiN coatings on AISI 304 stainless steel and adhesion determinations

Internal friction and elastic modulus measurements were carried out on AISI 304 stainless steel coated by physical vapor-deposited TiN, using a torsion pendulum and a vibrant-reed instrument. Some experiments showed several internal friction peaks, which are attributed to dislocation relaxation and to martensitic transformation from γ to α′. The materials were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Two new methods are proposed to determine the adhesion energy by internal friction in thin films layered materials: for the first it is necessary to determine the enthalpy by means of isochronal internal friction measurements, while for the second it is necessary to perform isothermal measurements.