Effects of excitation parameters on fretting wear and corrosion of 316L stainless steel under random impact-sliding condition

In heat exchanger applications, the random vibration due to fluid excitation can cause mechanical wear between tubes and supports. In corrosive environments, the synergy between wear and corrosion can make wear more severe. Therefore, this paper focused on the effects of excitation amplitude and excitation force ratio (drag force/lift force) on fretting wear and corrosion of 316L stainless steel under random impact-sliding conditions. The results showed that as the excitation parameters increased, the friction coefficient and total wear amount would increase, the open circuit potential (OCP) decreased and the polarization curve self-corrosion potential shifted negatively. All synergistic coefficients in this paper were greater than 1, indicating that there was an obvious positive synergy between wear and corrosion. In the fretting wear and corrosion process, pure wear always played a dominant role. Under impact-sliding conditions, as the excitation force increased, the rate of wear-promoted corrosion increased from 3.0 × 10⁻⁷ to 2.0 × 10⁻⁶ g/h, an increase of 6.67 times. However, the rate of corrosion-promoted wear decreased from 1.1 × 10⁻⁶ to 2.0 × 10⁻⁷ g/h, a decrease of 5.5 times, showing a certain self-limiting property. The total synergy rose slowly with the increase of excitation parameters. The wear mechanism of materials under impact is characterized by adhesive wear, while under impact-sliding conditions, the wear mechanism involves abrasive wear and corrosion wear.