Jia-Chen Zhao , Peng-Cheng Zhang , Zhi-Yuan Huang , Wan-Li Song , Jie Pan , Xuan Xu , Li-Xue Chen , Xiang Chen , Cheng Zhang , Lin Liu
{"title":"Enhancing anti-adhesion and wear performance at armature/rail interface through synergistic interfacial energy and lubrication effects","authors":"Jia-Chen Zhao , Peng-Cheng Zhang , Zhi-Yuan Huang , Wan-Li Song , Jie Pan , Xuan Xu , Li-Xue Chen , Xiang Chen , Cheng Zhang , Lin Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jmrt.2025.03.145","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During electromagnetic launch (EML) process, the adhesion of aluminum to high-strength copper-alloy rails poses a significant challenge, severely deteriorating the performance and lifetime of rails. Previous researches were primarily centered to the surface modification of copper-alloy rail with coatings. However, this process is time- and money-consuming, and raises sustainability concerns during multi-firing operations. In contrast, the modification of aluminum-a armature, featured with simplicity and economy, may offer an alternative approach for alleviating aluminum adhesion on rails. Here, we propose a novel strategy for modifying the aluminum armature surface with the combination of positive interfacial energy and lubrication effects. This is accomplished by applying a newly designed (Ti, W)N–MoS<sub>2</sub> coating to the aluminum armature through magnetron sputtering. Results indicate that this coating highly reduces the coefficient of friction between Cu-alloy and the coated Al-alloy from 0.56 to 0.14. The simulated EML demonstrates that the coating remarkably decreases aluminum adhesion by 97.7 %. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations reveal that the improved performance of wear between armature and rail is attributed to the synergistic effects of the formed (Ti, W)N and non-stoichiometric Mo<sub>15</sub>S<sub>19</sub> phases in coating, where the former exhibits positive interfacial energy with Cu, while the later serves as a lubricator, both work together and lead to ultra-low coefficient of friction and significant reduction of Al adhesion on Cu rail.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54332,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Materials Research and Technology-Jmr&t","volume":"36 ","pages":"Pages 692-698"},"PeriodicalIF":6.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Materials Research and Technology-Jmr&t","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2238785425006556","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
During electromagnetic launch (EML) process, the adhesion of aluminum to high-strength copper-alloy rails poses a significant challenge, severely deteriorating the performance and lifetime of rails. Previous researches were primarily centered to the surface modification of copper-alloy rail with coatings. However, this process is time- and money-consuming, and raises sustainability concerns during multi-firing operations. In contrast, the modification of aluminum-a armature, featured with simplicity and economy, may offer an alternative approach for alleviating aluminum adhesion on rails. Here, we propose a novel strategy for modifying the aluminum armature surface with the combination of positive interfacial energy and lubrication effects. This is accomplished by applying a newly designed (Ti, W)N–MoS2 coating to the aluminum armature through magnetron sputtering. Results indicate that this coating highly reduces the coefficient of friction between Cu-alloy and the coated Al-alloy from 0.56 to 0.14. The simulated EML demonstrates that the coating remarkably decreases aluminum adhesion by 97.7 %. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations reveal that the improved performance of wear between armature and rail is attributed to the synergistic effects of the formed (Ti, W)N and non-stoichiometric Mo15S19 phases in coating, where the former exhibits positive interfacial energy with Cu, while the later serves as a lubricator, both work together and lead to ultra-low coefficient of friction and significant reduction of Al adhesion on Cu rail.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Materials Research and Technology is a publication of ABM - Brazilian Metallurgical, Materials and Mining Association - and publishes four issues per year also with a free version online (www.jmrt.com.br). The journal provides an international medium for the publication of theoretical and experimental studies related to Metallurgy, Materials and Minerals research and technology. Appropriate submissions to the Journal of Materials Research and Technology should include scientific and/or engineering factors which affect processes and products in the Metallurgy, Materials and Mining areas.