Physical Metallurgy

3rd year Met. Eng.

Second semester

Chapter 3
Wear of metals & alloys
 Wear of metals & alloys
• Wear may be defined as the unwanted removal of the material from solid
surfaces as a result of chemical or/and mechanical action.
• The wear phenomenon are important for materials used in applications
requiring high resistance to wear such as:
o Mining and crushing machinery.
o Rail road service.
o Road building machines.
• In the present chapter 4 parts will be considered:
(A) Types of wear processes.
(B) Factors affecting wear.
(C) Wear resisting materials.
(D) Methods of protection against wear.
 (A) Types of wear processes:
1. Adhesive wear. 2. Abrasive wear. 3. Erosive wear.
4. Corrosive wear. 5. Erosion – Corrosion. 6. Fatigue wear.

(1) Adhesive wear:

• Adhesive wear processes involve the interaction between two metallic
surfaces in motion.

(2) Abrasive wear:

• Is the removal of material from one surface or by harder surface or by harder
particles that moving relative to the wearing surface. The harder particles
form an indentation and cut the material as it moves across the surface.
• Abrasive wear may occur in dry or wet state.
(3) Erosive wear:
• Is the wear results from the impact of gas or liquid containing particles with the surfaces.
• Ex.: For this type:The leading edges of high speed air craft impacted by rain drops.
(4) Corrosive wear:
• This form of wear occurs when sliding takes place in corrosive environment. In the
absence of sliding the products of corrosion would form a film on the surface which
would tend to slow down or even arrest the corrosion process, but sliding action
removes it so that the chemical reaction continue.

(5) Erosion- Corrosion:

• It involves joint action of velocity, abrasive particles and chemical attack. The
effect increases when abrasive action remove s protective films.

(6) Fatigue wear:

• It is observed during repeated sliding or the repeated loading and unloading cycles to
which the materials are exposed. This will induce the formation of surface cracks and lead to
large losses of material.
 Measurement of wear :
• The simplest method for detection of wear is the use of weighing method.
• This way gives the total amount of wear in a short time (weight loss).

 (B) The factors affecting wear processes:

• There are many factors affecting the wear processes. These factors are:
1. Material properties. 2. Temperature. 3. Load.
4. Contact area. 5. Atmosphere. 6. Lubrication.

(1) Material properties:

EX.: Effect of hardness.

• Wear resistance of many metals is directly proportional to its hardness. The
hardness of the metal should be greater than the hardness of the abrasive
particles.
(2) Temperature:
• Temperature affects wear in three major ways. It can change:
a) The properties of the material.
b) The film formed on the surface.
c) The properties of the lubricant.

• The hardness of the metals is temperature dependent. The higher the

temperature, the lower is the hardness. Wear rate increases with decreasing
hardness. Changes in temperature have marked effect on both rates of
oxidation and the type of oxide formed. This will affect the mean rate.
Increasing temperature has deteriorating effect on lubricants and thus increase
the amount of wear.

(3) Load:
• An increase in load causes an increase in the friction force. This leads to
increase in wear.
(4) Atmosphere: {moisture content }
• It has been shown that the abrasive wear rates increase as humidity
increases.
(5) Abrasive particle size:
• The increase in abrasive particle will lead to an increase in the wear
rate. Very large particle sizes will decrease the wear rate. This is because
large particles prevent the abrasive medium from contacting the other
surface.
(6) Lubrication:
• The use of lubrication reduces friction and thus wear will decrease.
 (C) Wear resisting materials:
1. Steels: as Mn- steels
2. Cast Irons: as high Cr cast irons.
3. Carbides: as WC.
4. Super alloys: as Ni – base alloys.
 (1) Mn- steels:
4. Mn- steels have good abrasion resistance and toughness. There are five
types of Mn steels:
Type %C Mn Cr Mo others
1-standered 1-1.4 12-14 - - -
Cr-alloyed 1-1.4 12-14 1.5-2.5 - -
1% Mo 0.8-1.4 12-15 0.8-1.2 -
4- lean type 1.1-1.4 5-7 - 0.8-1.2 -
5- high 0.4-0.7 12-15 2-4 1.8-2.2 Ni :2-4
alloyed
• Applications:
- Crushing and grinding applications.
- Rail road and chains.
 (2) High Cr-Cast irons:
High Cr-Cast irons have excellent wear resistance, but these irons are brittle.
Thus it is used in applications involving wear but with little impact. They
are used as grinding media for grinding operation in cement industry. These
alloys can be divided into two classes depending on Cr/C ratio.
 The factors which affect wear resistance of high Cr-Cast irons:
1. Chemical composition:
a) Carbon: the higher the carbon content, the larger will be the amount of
carbides.
b) Chromium: higher Cr content leads to increase in strength, hardness
and wear resistance.

2. Microstructure:
a) Carbides: as the volume of carbides increases, the wear resistance
increases also.
b) Matrix: if the matrix is weak, the abrasive particles will remove the
carbides from the matrix and remove material from surface. Thus wear
resistance increases with increasing carbon content.
 Applications:
- Grinding balls in cement industry.
- Crushers.
- Pumps.

 (D) Methods of protection against wear:-

There are two main methods for protection:
1- Selection of a material of high wear resistance.
2- The use of coating materials to protect the surface of the metal.

 Coating :-
Coating is a new surface region, which has properties differ from those of the
bulk of the material.
The requirements for the protective coatings:-
1- Chemical stability with the environment.
2- Mechanical stability.
3- Thermal stability.
4- High wear resistance

 Coating methods:
There are many methods of coating which can be used to protect surface of
metal against wear.
Examples:
1- Hot dipping.
2- Mechanical cladding.
3- Electroplating.
(1) Hot dipping:-
The method involves immersing the article to be coated in a bath of
molten metal as Zn, Pb, and Sn. The coating is not homogeneous and
has a relatively high thickness when compared with other metallic
coatings. There is no way of controlling the amount of coating. This
method is used only with metals of low melting point.
Ex.: Galvanized steel (which is coating iron with Zn).

(2) Mechanical cladding:-

In this method, one metal is coated with another by rolling the two metals
in contact which other. By this mechanical process, steel for example, is
coated with Al, Cu, or Ni.
(3) Electroplating:-
• After cleaning, the article to be coated is made the cathode in an
electrolytic cell, containing in solution a salt of the metal to be
electrodeposited.
• The plating operation is accomplished by passing a current through this cell.
• Metal ions enter the solution by dissolution of the anode. These ions
and identical metal ions of the electrolyte move toward the cathode where
they are deposited.
• Electrodeposited coatings are:-
- More uniform in thickness
- Less porous.
- High purity.
- The thickness can be controlled.
 The process depends on:-
1-Temp. 2-Current density. 3-Time. 4-Composition of the bath.

The metals used for plating are:- Zn, Ni ,Sn, and Cd.