Wear behavior of in-situ oxide dispersion strengthened Fe-8Ni alloy with Zr additions

In this study, in-situ oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe91Ni8Zr1 and Fe88Ni8Zr4 alloys were produced by combination of high energy mechanical alloying (HEMA) and high temperature equal channel angular extrusion (HT-ECAE). The wear behaviors of the consolidated samples were investigated under different loads from 1 N to 4 N by reciprocating wear tests at room temperature. The Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine the wear tracks to analyze the wear characteristics as a function of applied loads. The relative comparison of the wear results showed that under the lower loads of 1 N and 2 N, Fe88Ni8Zr4 alloy has lower wear rate than Fe91Ni8Zr1 alloy whereas under the higher loads of 3 N and 4 N, it is vice versa. Additionally, the friction coefficient of Fe91Ni8Zr1 alloy was found to be lower than that of Fe88Ni8Zr4 alloy under all the applied loads. The results were comparatively discussed with respect to microstructural features of 1 at% Zr and 4 at% Zr containing ODS alloys produced by HEMA followed by ECAE. The obtained results of ODS alloys with different grain size, precipitate size, and number density of the precipitates, may disclose a new sight for using such alloys in wear applications just as cutting tools, turbine blades, and discs.