Physical, Mechanical, and Tribological Assessment of High Manganese-Silicon Steel Alloys

Abstract

The present paper reports the study on manganese-silicon steel cast through a clean liquid metallurgical route; in order to assess the tribological behaviour of the steel, the solidified ingots were subjected to heat treatments, such as annealing, ice water quenching, followed by ageing the quenched steel at 550 °C, 600 °C, 650 °C and 700 °C for two hours. For evaluation of hardness, tensile strength and sliding wear properties; the desired samples were prepared as per usual standards. The best combination of the ultimate tensile strength (476.83 MPa), microhardness (252.23 HV), and mean specific wear rate of 2.269E-05 mm³/N-m is achieved for alloy 1 after ageing at 650 °C. Fractography of broken tensile samples and microstructural characterization of worn-out surfaces are carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM); these have aided in the determination of the dominant wear mechanism and mode of fracture during tensile loading. The mixed-mode fracture is predominantly observed in most of the fractured surfaces, and the dominant wear mechanism is found to be adhesive wear. Moreover, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis has shown the presence of phases like austenite, α' martensite, ɛ martensite, along with AlNi₃, Ni₂Al₃, and M₂C precipitates.