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Effect of Temperature on Wear Characteristic of Cast Iron

Conference Paper · May 2010

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

Effect of Temperature on Wear Characteristic of Cast Iron

S. K. Shaha1 and M. M. Haque2
1
Postgraduate Student, Dept. of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering, International
Islamic University Malaysia, P.O. Box-10, 50728, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
E-mail: sugribshah_mme@yahoo.com
2
Dept. of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering, International Islamic University
Malaysia, P.O. Box-10, 50728, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, E-mail: mohafizul@iiu.edu.my

Abstract
Conventional Fe-C-Si alloy cast iron shows good properties at low temperature but at high
temperature its properties decrease very sharply. So, to protect this behaviour of cast iron, Si was
replaced by Al, since both elements have similar graphitizing effect. In the present study, two
types of cast iron, Fe-C-Si and Fe-C-Al, were cast in cold set resin bonded sand mould. After
casting, the microstructures were studied using standard metallographic techniques. The wear
tests were conducted using “CSM High Temperature Tribometer” following pin-on-disk method
at 25 0C, 100 0C, 200 0C and 300 0C. The worn tracks were characterized using optical
profilometer, SEM etc.. The results show that abrasive type wear was observed in both types of
cast iron and always the Fe-C-Al cast has low wear rate compared to Fe-C-Si. However, after at
100 0C temperature, the wear resistance of Fe-C-Si cast iron starts to decrease whereas at lower
temperature, it remains almot unchanged. The wear rates for Fe-C-Si alloy cast iron are 12.42,
16.51, 46.75 and 98.87x10-5mm3/N/m whereas the wear rates for Fe-C-Al cast iron are 3.32,
4.23, 4.40 and 8.15x10-5mm3/N/m at 25 0C, 100 0C, 200 0C and 300 0C, respectively.

1. INTRODUCTION
Automotive industries are one of the largest consumers of cast iron. These automotive
industries want to increase both the efficiency of engine and their life time. Because of its multi-
variety properties, it can also be used in other fields such as in manufacturing roller, roller shell,
lathe bench, agricultural tools, etc. Day by day, the demand for cast iron increases and that’s why
people are developing new grades of cast iron that can give better physical and mechanical
properties and sustain at room temperature as well as high temperature. Most of the automotive
engines are high temperature combustion engine where the heat is generated by burning of fossil
fuel or the friction between the machine parts. When the temperature increases, the material
becomes softer which increases the friction force and wear rate [1, 2].
The commonly used gray cast iron has a complicated, and multiphase structures. Its
property depends not only on the shape and size of the graphite flakes, but also on the
morphology of the matrices. Its properties can be widely changed by alloy addition, heat
treatment or controlling the solidification of the alloy [3-5]. The wear property of gray cast iron
depends on the properties of the matrix and thus, by modifying the matrices of the gray cast iron,
it is possible to change the wear behaviour of the cast iron [6-8]. In order to do so, silicon was
replaced by aluminium in the ferrous alloy system. Aluminium modifies the matrix with flake
which will give better room temperature as well as high temperature properties compared to Si
containing cast iron [9-12].
In the present study, wear characteristics of Fe-C-Al and Fe-C-Si cast iron were
investigated at different temperatures ranging from 25 oC to 300 oC.

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

2. EXPERIMENTAL
The Cast irons were melted in a 150 kW medium frequency induction furnace. After
melting, it was poured into a cold set resin bonded sand mould. The pouring temperature of both
cast irons was 1300 0C. The cast product was cut and polished to observe the microstructures
under SEM.
For tribological study, the sample dimension was 30 mm×30 mm×10 mm and it was finely
polished. The dry sliding wear test was conducted in a pin-on-disk apparatus using CSM High
Temperature Tribometer at room temperature (250C) and high temperature (100 0C, 200 0C and
300 0C). To heat the samples, induction type heater was used. A 3 mm diameter alumina ball was
used as static pin whereas the GCI was used as a revolving disk and a 5 N load was used as
normal load. Before placing the sample into the test place, it was cleaned with acetone to remove
oil, grease, dust, etc. for each test. The test was continued for 30 min at 25 cm/s linear speed in
56% humid atmosphere. After test, worn surfaces were cleaned lightly using acetone.
The surface area of worn track was measured using “Veeco Wyko NT1100” optical
profilometer and the wear rate was calculated using CSM software. The two and three
dimensional profiles were plotted using optical profilometer and to identify the nature of wear,
the worn track was examined under SEM.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Microstructure
The microstructures of both gray cast irons are shown in Fig 1. It is clear that silicon
containing GCI has high density of graphite flake in pearlitic matrix (Fig 1(a) and Fig 1(b)),
whereas the aluminium containing GCI has a mixture of ferrite and pearlite in the matrix with
less dense graphite flake, (Fig 1(c) and Fig 1(d)). When the aluminium content of cast iron is
greater than 2.5%, the carbon concentration near dendrite is reduced where the fine pearlites is
formed but in inter dendritic region ferrite remains [12, 13].

Fig 1 Microstructure of Gray Cast Irons, (a) un-etched and (b) etched conditions for Fe-C-
Si alloy system whereas (c) un-etched and (d) etched conditions for Fe-C-Al alloy system

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

3.2 Wear Characteristics

Fig 2 shows the wear rate with respect to temperature increase. It is noticed that the Si
containing cast iron has higher wear rate compared to Al containing cast iron all over the
temperature ranges from 25 0C to 300 0C.
100

90
Fe-C-Al alloy
80 Fe-C-Si alloy
Wear Rate (mm3/N/m)x10-5

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Temperature (Deg C)

Fig 2 Wear Rate of Gray Cast Iron

It illustrates that the ware rate of Fe-C-Si cast iron varies from 12.42×10-5 mm3/m/N to
98.88×10-5 mm3/m/N whereas the wear rate of Fe-C-Al cast iron varies from 3.3203×10-5
mm3/m/N to 8.1550×10-5 mm3/m/N. However, the wear rate drastically increases after 100 0C for
Fe-C-Si cast iron whereas other lower temperature, it remains nearly the same. This cast iron
which indicates that the Fe-C-Al alloy cast iron is more wear protective than Fe-C-Si alloy cast
iron.
These are more visible from Figs 3 and 4. They show that the worn track depth increases
with increasing the temperature. The depths of worn tracks are 12.07 to 19.73 µm for Fe-C-Al
alloy and 19.35 to 56.64 µm for Fe-C-Si alloy at 25 to 300 0C, respectively.

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

(a) Worn track at 250C (b) Depth: 12.07µm

(c) Worn track at 1000C (d) Depth: 13.59 µm

(e) Worn track at 2000C (f) Depth: 14.10 µm

(g) Worn track at 3000C (h) Depth: 19.73 µm

Fig 3 Worn Tracks of Fe-C-Al system Gray Cast Iron at Various Temperature under
Optical Profilometer, (a), (c), (e) and (g) 3D, and (b), (d), (f) and (h) 2D plot

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

(a) Worn track at 250C (b) Depth: 19.35 µm

(c) Worn track at 1000C (d) Depth: 24.53 µm

(e) Worn track at 2000C (f) Depth: 28.88 µm

(g) Worn track at 3000C (h) Depth: 56.64 µm

Fig 4 Worn Tracks of Fe-C-Si system Gray Cast Iron at Various Temperature under
Optical Profilometer, (a), (c), (e) and (g) 3D, and (b), (d), (f) and (h) 2D plot

Figs 5 and 6 show the worn tracks surfaces under SEM. They show that Si containing cast
iron has large plastic flow, scar, and debris and spelled layers resembling delamination on the
surface indicating severe wear. However, worn surface shows less plastic flow and wear scar
which indicate less severe wear. When hard asperity on the surface of a material or a hard
particle is entrapped between two surfaces, plastically deformed or cut off a surface may occure
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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

due to the motion, resulting abrasive wear. The gray cast iron sample surface was cut off due to
sliding motion and thus abrasive wear occurred.

(a) Worn track at 250C (b) Worn track at 1000C

(c) Worn track at 2000C (d) Worn track at 3000C

Fig 5 Worn Track Surface of Fe-C-Al Alloy System under SEM at Various Temperatures

(a) Worn track at 250C (b) Worn track at 1000C

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

(c) Worn track at 2000C (d) Worn track at 3000C

Fig 6 Worn Track Surface of Fe-C-Si Alloy System Gray Cast Iron under SEM at Various
Temperatures
It was reported that fully pearlite containing cast iron has low toughness compared to ferro-
pearlite containing cast iron [14]. Due to low toughness, its wear resistance is low [13]. Si
containing cast iron has pearlitic matrix and its wear resistance is low. Aluminium containing
cast iron has high toughness and shows high wear resistance. It was also reported that aluminium
containing cast iron formed Fe-Al carbide phase which is very hard and wear resistant [15, 16].
Abrasive wear property also depends on oxidation characteristics of the materials. When
debris forms during wear test, it is clear that oxidation occurs in that place and every moment
virgin materials are exposed. If the formation of debris and scar is higher, the wear rate will be
also higher. Si containing cast iron shows large scar and debris which indicates higher wear rate.
Again, the temperature between two surfaces increases due to sliding and forms oxide in the
worn track. The formed iron oxide is less stable than aluminium oxide and this aluminium oxide
protects the surface from wear [12].
The graphite morphology also controls the wear property of the materials. Aluminum
containing cast iron has small graphite flake and this type of graphite flake is more protective to
wear. When the graphite flakes are distributed in the matrix, it separates the matrices. If the
graphite flake is more, the matrices will be more separated than less graphite flaky cast iron.
These graphite flakes will concentrate the stress during wear test, resulting peeling off the
materials [17]. As graphite flakes are more concentrated and well distributed in Si containing
cast iron than the Al containing cast iron, it shows more peel off compared to Al containing cast
iron can be seen in Figs 5 and 6.
CONCLUSIONS
In the present study wear characteristics of both cast irons were determined and the
following conclusions can be drawn.
(a) The microstructure of Fe-C-Al cast iron shows graphite flaks are in ferrite- pearlite
matrix whereas Fe-C-Si cast iron shows graphite flaks are in pearlite matrix.
(b) The room temperature (25 0C) wear rate is nearly the same for both types of cast irons,
while at high temperatures (100 0C, 200 0C and 300 0C) wear rate of Fe-C-Al alloy is
very less than Fe-C-Si alloy system cast iron.
(c) Both types of cast iron show abrasive type wear, however Fe-C-Si alloy system shows
more ploughing and dilamination.
(d) Overall results advocate to use Fe-C-Al alloy where wear reristance property are
required for at least up to 300 0C.

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 Thermal Spray 2010: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference
May 3-5, 2010, Singapore
Edited by: B.R. Marple, A. Agarwal, M.M. Hyland, Y.-C. Lau, C.-J. Li, R.S. Lima, G. Montavon

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