High-Temperature Wear Behavior of the ZE41 Mg Alloy

Abstract

High-temperature wear and friction properties of ZE41 alloy were evaluated using a pin on disc tribometer. The microstructure of the alloy has the equiaxed grains of 72±20µm decorated with the rare earth rich precipitates. Result shows that wear rate decreases upto 100°C and then increases until 250°C for all the loading conditions. The wear mechanism study revealed that the underlying thin oxide tribolayer minimizes the wear rate upto 100°C. Above 100°C, thickening of oxide layer due to enhanced oxidation rate results in breakage of the layer. Further, the increase of temperature softens the alloy which deforms and fractures in the subsurface at low critical load resulting in more delamination wear. The combined effects of oxidation and delamination wear are accentuated with the increase of load and temperature resulting in the increase of the wear rate. Comparing the influence of load and temperature on the wear rate, contact load is more.