Sliding wear behavior of Fe3Al-based alloys

Room-temperature dry sliding wear behavior of iron-aluminides containing 25, 28 and 30 at.% aluminum has been investigated using a pin-on-disk wear tester. The aluminides were heat-treated to have two different ordered structures, i.e. B2 and DO3. It was found that wear rate of the aluminides increased with the increase of applied normal load and sliding speed. Wear resistance of the aluminides decreased with the increase in aluminum contents and the wear rate difference between the D03 and B2 structures was not significant. SEM observations of worn surfaces of the aluminides showed ductile material’s wear behavior associated with plastic deformation. Microploughing and the formation and subsequent detachment of surface deformation layers from the wearing surface were found to be the basic wear mechanism of the aluminide alloys. Their different yield strengths and strain-hardening rates characterized the wear rate difference among the aluminides