Mild oxidative wear behaviour of plain carbon dual-phase steel

In order to explore the tribological potential of the dual phase (DP) steel as wear resistant material, the wear and friction characteristics of this steel, which consists of hard martensite island embedded in a ductile ferrite matrix, were investigated and compared with those observed in plain carbon normalized (N) steel with the same composition of 0.2 wt pct carbon. Dry sliding wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-disk wear testing machine at normal loads of 21.3, 28.5, 35.7 and 42.6 N and at a constant sliding velocity of 1.20 m/s. The analysis of surface and wear debris of the tested specimens showed that wear mechanism was mainly mild oxidative. The friction and wear rate of the DP steel and N steel were explained with respect to microstructure and the wear mechanism.