Wear and corrosion wear of medium carbon steel and 304 stainless steel

Wear and corrosive wear involve mechanical and chemical mechanisms and the combination of these mechanisms often results in significant mutual effects. In this paper, tribological behavior, X-ray peak broadening, and microstructure changes of carbon steel AISI 1045 and stainless steel AISI 304 samples under simultaneous wear and corrosion were investigated and the results were compared with those obtained from dry wear tests. 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution was used as the corrosion agent and a pin-on-disk tribometer was employed to perform wear and corrosive wear tests. X-ray diffraction measurements have shown that by increasing the applied load, the worn surfaces of carbon steel samples reached a constant strain at which fracture and wear occurred. Whereas in 304 stainless steel samples, by increasing the applied load, broadening of X-ray diffraction peaks was decreased. Wear tests of carbon steel and stainless steel samples have shown smaller weight losses and lower friction coefficient in the presence of corrosive environment. Study of worn surfaces suggested that depending on wear environment and applied load, different features of wear mechanisms were involved.