A Study on the Wear Behaviour of Dual Phase Steels

Dual phase (DP) steels containing four different amounts of martensite ranging from 43 vol. pct to 81 vol. pct have been developed from 0.2 wt pct carbon steel by intercritical heat treatment at a fixed temperature of 780℃ with varying holding times followed by water quenching. Dry sliding wear tests have been conducted on DP steels using a pin- on-disk machine under different normal loads of 61.3, 68.5, 75.7 and 82.6 N and at a constant sliding speed of 1.20 m/s. At these loads, the mechanism of wear is primarily delamination, which has been confirmed by SEM micrographs of subsurface and wear debris of samples. Wear properties have been found to improve with the increase in martensite volume fraction in dual phase steels.