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Materials
& Design
Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621
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Effect of microstructure on slurry abrasion response of En-31 steel

S.G. Sapate *, A.D. Chopde, P.M. Nimbalkar, D.K. Chandrakar
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT),
South Ambazari Road, Nagpur 440 011, India

Received 1 September 2006; accepted 26 February 2007

Available online 13 March 2007

Abstract

Wear by slurry abrasion occurs in extruders, slurry pumps, and pipes carrying slurry of minerals and ores in mineral processing indus-
tries. The wear life of components used under slurry abrasion conditions is governed by the process parameters, properties of abrasive
particles in slurry and material properties. In the present work slurry abrasion response of heat treated En-31 steel was studied. The
quenched and tempered specimens of En-31 steel, tempered at different temperatures, were used in the present investigation. The slurry
abrasion tests were performed using slurry abrasion test apparatus with silica sand as the abrasive medium. The effect of sliding distance,
normal load and slurry concentration on volume loss was evaluated. The experiments were also carried with simultaneous variation of
normal load and sliding distance. The results of the present work were explained by a model, V = (K · S · L)/(H)2/3, where V is the vol-
ume loss in slurry abrasion, S is the sliding distance, L is the normal load, H is the bulk hardness of the surface and K is wear coefficient.
The morphology of the worn surfaces after slurry abrasion was studied under scanning electron microscope. The morphological studies
of the worn surfaces revealed characteristic differences in the wear pattern under different test conditions. The operating mechanisms of
material removal involved ploughing and cutting.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Heat treatment; Tempering; Hardness; Microstructure; Slurry abrasion; Ploughing; Cutting

1. Introduction face properties by heat treatment and use of suitable wear

The primary modes of wear responsible for degradation
of the engineering components in industries are sliding
wear, abrasive, erosive wear and chemically assisted wear
[1]. Wear by abrasion accounts for more than 50% of the
wear failures occurring in industries. The phenomenon of
wear is not only responsible for material removal but also
leads to premature failure of engineering components. The
monetary loss due to wear also includes cost involved in
replacement and downtime cost. The modification in
equipment design and change of service parameters are
often unsuitable solutions to reduce the severity of wear.
The most commonly used strategies adopted to combat
wear problem in industries are based on use of alternative
and more wear resistant materials, modification of the sur-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 712 2222828; fax: +91 712 2223230.
E-mail address: sgsapate@yahoo.com (S.G. Sapate).
resistant coatings.
Although one or more strategies can be used to enhance
wear performance of engineering components, the cost
involved in surface modification/alteration in surface prop-
erties is the key factor. Wear by slurry abrasion potentially
occurs in slurry pumps, pipes carrying mineral and ore
slurries in mineral processing industries. The evaluation
of slurry abrasion under actual service conditions is often
a difficult task, due to interactive effects of different param-
eters such as slurry concentration, velocity and properties
of abrasive medium on wear rate. Accelerated wear testing
of materials can be performed by increasing load, velocity
and other operational parameters in a laboratory test
where real contact conditions can be simulated.
Akira et al. [2] observed that heat treated carbon steel
with ferritic–martensitic microstructure exhibited better
slurry abrasion resistance than 18Cr–13Ni–3Mo steel with
similar hardness, whereas high Mn steel with austenitic

0261-3069/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2007.02.014
614 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621
microstructure performed better than heat treated carbon
steel. The quenched and tempered 0.65 carbon steel with
martensitic microstructure showed 1.5 times better slurry
abrasion resistance as compared to pearlitic microstruc-
ture, as noted by Shu Sun [3]. ZumGahr [4] also observed
that abrasion resistance of steel increased with increasing
volume fraction of martnesite. Tekeli and Gural [5] found
that martensite hardness had greater influence than its vol-
ume fraction in deciding sliding wear rate of heat treated
carbon steels. Badisch and Mitterer [6] noted that coarser
primary carbides are effective in increasing the finer car-
bides in high speed steels The wear coefficient dropped by
a factor of two when the carbide size was increased six fold.
The observations due to He and Zhang [7] indicate that
heat treated carbon steels with martensitic microstructure
were 1.3–1.7 times abrasion resistant than mild steel. They
also pointed out that relative abrasion resistance decreased
with increasing particle size of silica sand. However, the
benefit of increase in hardness did not improve abrasion
resistance substantially and in fact with increasing particle
size, abrasion mass loss increased marginally. Similar
observations were reported by Tekeli and Gural [5] and
Larsen Basse and Premaratne [8] whereas non heat treated
steels showed a linear relationship between abrasion resis-
tance and bulk hardness as noted by Sevim and Eryurek
[9]. The investigations by Swanson [10], also revealed no
substantial difference in the abrasion rate of 1045 steel
when the hardness was increased from 86 HRB to 95 HRB.
The wear performance of ceramic coatings was evalu-
ated by many researchers. Sari and Yilmaz [11] observed
that nitriding and boronizing offered no significant advan-
tage to abrasion resistance as compared to HVOF (High
velocity oxy fuel) or flame sprayed composite coating of
Ni–Cr–B–Si. The abrasive wear performance of boronized
1010 steel was comparable to those of D2 and 304 stainless
steels, whereas boronized 1040 steel exhibited superior
wear performance, as reported by Atik et al. [12]. They
concluded that conventional nitriding and carburizing
treatments were not as effective as that of boronizing Dong
et al. [13] found that sprayed coating like WC–Co, Mo, Cr–
Ni on Ti alloy substrate provided better slurry abrasion
resistance when compared to carbon steel and anodized
and electroless Ni plating did not provide any substantial
improvement in the performance. In their study of abrasive
wear of plasma sprayed Cr2O3-stainless steel coatings
Ageorges et al. [14] found that 53% Cr2O3-47% stainless
steel coating exhibited best slurry abrasion resistance,
which was attributed to the excellent cohesion of the coat-
ing. In contrast, pure Cr2O3 coating showed poor slurry
abrasion resistance. Knuttilla et al. [15] reported that
plasma sprayed alumina coatings showed three times and
twenty times better slurry abrasion resistance than Cr2O3
coatings and stainless steel, respectively. Ding et al. [16]
examined the nature of damage produced in coal water
slurry nozzles. It was observed that ceramic nozzles worn
out by brittle fracture process, thermal cracking and chip-
ping whereas in cemented carbide nozzles wear occurred by
preferential removal of binder phase and pull out of WC
grains. Stainless steel nozzles exhibited plastic deformation
and ploughing and microcutting were predominant mecha-
nisms of material removal.
Thus it can be concluded that abrasion resistance does
not show consistent co-relation with hardness of the sur-
face and the inconsistency in prediction may be attributed
to data generated under limited set of experimental condi-
tions. Most of the earlier investigations on abrasion of
steels were carried out using dry sand rubber wheel abra-
sion tester. The slurry abrasion data on steels is limited
and earlier investigations were carried out under narrow
range of experimental conditions. None of the previous
studies indicate interactive effects of material and opera-
tional parameters on wear rate under slurry abrasion con-
ditions. The objective of the present work was to study
slurry abrasion response of En-31 steel under a wide range
of slurry abrasion conditions using slurry abrasion tester.
SEM studies were carried out on worn surfaces to gain
an insight into the mechanism of material removal under
different experimental conditions.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
In the present investigation En-31 steel in the as rolled and annealed
form was used to study the slurry abrasion behavior. The chemical com-
position of as received En-31 steel plate was determined by wet chemical
analysis method. The chemical composition is given in Table 1.
2.1.1. Heat treatment
The heat treatment was carried out on En-31 Steel specimens prepared
for slurry abrasive wear testing. The specimens were rectangular blocks
measuring 57.2 mm (length) · 25.4 mm (width) · 9 mm (thickness). The
specimens were quenched from 830 ± 3 C with a soaking time of 1 h.
The water quenching was followed by tempering treatment at tempera-
tures of 210 C, 300 C, 410 C, 550 C with a soaking time of 1 h for each
sample. The heat treated En-31 specimens tempered at 210 C, 300 C,
410 C and 550 C temperatures were designated as A, B, C and D, respec-
tively, whereas as received specimens were designated as AR.
2.1.2. Metallography
The specimens for metallography were 20 · 20 mm size which were cut
from the heat treated samples. The specimen were ground and polished
with successive emery paper 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 followed by polishing with
alumina slurry. The polished specimens were etched with 2% Nital for
observations of microstructure.
The microstructures of heat treated specimens of En-31 steels are
shown in Figs. 1–4. Microstructure of specimen A of En-31 steel shows
very fine tempered martensite with very fine alloy carbide particles as
shown in Fig. 1. Microstructure of specimen B shows relatively coarse
tempered martensite with fine to coarse carbide particles as shown in
Fig. 2. Microstructure of specimen C shows coarse tempered martensite
Table 1
Chemical composition of En-31 steel
Element C Si Mn Cr P S
Wt% 0.95 0.27 0.72 1.45 0.018 0.016
 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621 615

with spheroidal carbide particles as shown in Fig. 3. Microstructure of

specimen D shows relatively coarser tempered martensite, as compared
to specimen C, with spheroidal carbide particles, as shown in Fig. 4.

2.1.3. Hardness and microhardness measurement

The bulk hardness of as received and heat treated specimens was mea-
sured using Rockwell hardness tester at a load of 150 kg. An average of
three reading is reported in the result as shown in Table 2. The specimens
for microhardness measurement were prepared in a similar way as that for
metallography. The microhardness was measured by using a Schimadzu
make microhardness tester at a load of 100 g. An average of five reading
is reported in the results.

2.2. Slurry abrasion wear testing

2.2.1. Slurry abrasion test apparatus

The slurry abrasion wear tests were performed using slurry abrasion
Fig. 3. Microstructure of specimen C of En-31 steel shows coarse
test apparatus (Ducom make, India). The apparatus consisted of a slurry
tempered martensite with spheroidal carbide particles (500·).
abrasive chamber enclosing the rubber lined steel wheel, test specimen and
slurry. The wheel is made of steel disc with an outer layer of neoprene rub-
ber (durometer hardness of 60 ± 2) molded to its periphery. Diameter of

Fig. 4. Microstructure of specimen D of En-31 steel shows relatively

Fig. 1. Microstructure of specimen A of En-31 steel shows very fine
tempered martensite with very fine alloy carbide particles (500·).
coarser tempered martensite with spheroidal carbide particles (500·).
wheel is 178 mm and thickness is 12.7 mm. The maximum speed of the
rubber lined wheel is 250 ± 5 RPM. The double walled jacket enables to
maintain the slurry temperature by circulating coolant. The load was mon-
itored by a load cell (450 N capacity) which was pre-calibrated to measure
the force applied by the specimen over the rubber wheel. A photograph of
the slurry abrasion test apparatus is shown in Fig. 5.

2.2.2. Procedure for slurry abrasion wear testing

The specimens for slurry abrasion testing were rectangular blocks mea-
suring 57.2 mm (length) · 25.4 mm (width) · 9 mm (thickness). The speci-
mens were polished using emery papers of 1/0 and 2/0 and cleaned with

Table 2
Hardness and microhardness values of En-31 steel
Sample Bulk hardness Microhardness (HV0.1)
AR 90 HRB –
A 57 Rc 592
B 50 Rc 520
C 42 Rc 442
Fig. 2. Microstructure of specimen B of En-31 steel shows relatively
D 32 Rc 338
coarse tempered martensite with fine to coarse carbide particles (500·).
616 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621

Table 3
Summary of slurry abrasion tests performed in the present work with silica
sand slurry
Specimen Load (N) RPM Slurry concentration
designation (%)
AR 35, 70, 95, 1000 150
125
AR 125 500, 1000, 1500, 150
2000
AR 125 1000 40, 80, 120, 150
A, B, C, D 35 500 150 (very mild)
A, B, C, D 70 1000 150 (mild)
A, B, C, D 95 1500 150 (severe)
A, B, C, D 125 2000 150 (very severe)

The slurry abrasion tests of various specimens AR, A, B, C and D were

Fig. 5. Photograph of the slurry abrasion test apparatus.
performed according to the test conditions mentioned in Table 3. After the
test was over the specimens were removed from the slurry chamber,
cleaned with alcohol and weighed. The loss in mass (g) was calculated
as the difference of initial and final weight of the specimen. In addition,
wear volume loss (mm3) was also determined. In the present work slurry
abrasion test was carried out on as received sample to study the effect of
RPM (sliding distance), load, and slurry concentration on wear loss. In
addition slurry abrasion tests were also performed on heat treated speci-
men A, B, C and D having different hardness by simultaneous variation
of load (35, 70, 95 and 125 N) and revolutions (500, 1000, 1500 and
2000). A summary of slurry abrasion tests performed in the present inves-
tigation is shown in Table 3. The severity of the test conditions is also indi-
cated in the last column.

alcohol and then weighed using a digital electronic balance to the accuracy
of 0.1 mg. The specimen was placed in the holder assembly. The inlet port
was filed with required amount of silica sand having particle size distribu-
tion of 300 lm-5% + 212 lm-95% and distilled water. The particle size
distribution of silica sand abrasive (1000–1100 HV) used for slurry abra-
sion testing is shown in Fig. 6. The silica sand particles have sub rounded
to angular shape. The desired load was placed on the loading lever and
loading lever was released so that specimen comes in contact with rubber
wheel.
2.2.3. Morphology of abraded surfaces
To assess the effect of operating parameters on wear scar pattern, the
length of the wear scar was also measured when the load and revolutions
were changed. From this, total distance slid by the specimen under partic-
ular set of test conditions was calculated. The sliding distance values were
used in characterizing wear behaviour of different specimens. The mor-
phology of the abraded surfaces was studied by scanning electron
microscope.

3. Results

The effect of sliding distance, normal load and slurry con-

centration on slurry abrasion volume loss of AR specimen
of En-31 steel is shown in Fig. 7a–c. The data points in
each case were fitted by best fit line and the slope of the line
gives volume wear rate with respect to sliding distance (S),
normal load (L) and slurry concentration (SC). In each case
a liner relationship was noted with regression coefficients of
0.9658, 0.9504 and 0.9251, respectively as given in Table 4. It
can be observed that fourfold increase in sliding distance

Table 4
Volume wear rate and R2 value of AR specimen in slurry abrasion test
Operating parameter Co-relation Volume wear R2
rate value
Sliding distance (S) V = 0.319S + 0.3629 0.319 mm3/m 0.9858
Normal load (L) V = 0.132L  3.209 0.132 mm3/N 0.9504
Slurry concentration V = 0.0788SC + 0.2755 0.0788 mm3/ 0.9251
Fig. 6. SEM photograph showing particle size distribution and shape of
(SC) %SC
silica sand particles used for slurry abrasion testing.
 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621 617

resulted in more than four times increase in volume wear loss
under given slurry abrasion conditions, as shown in Fig. 7a.
An increase in load from 35 N to 125 N resulted in significant
increase in volume wear loss from 0.3993 mm3 to 12.40 mm3.
Thus volume wear loss increased more than thirty times for a
fourfold increase in normal load, as shown in Fig. 7b. The
effect of slurry concentration on volume wear loss is shown
in Fig. 7c. The volume loss wear loss increased more than
four times when the slurry concentration was increased from
40% to 150%.
Fig. 8 shows volume wear loss of heat treated specimens
of En-31 steel A, B, C and D vs. the product of sliding dis-
tance (S) and normal load (L). The data points were fitted
by the straight line and the slope of the line in each case
indicates volume wear rate (mm3/N m) of specimens. The
volume wear rates and regression coefficients are given in
Table 5.
Fig. 9 shows volume wear loss of heat treated specimens
of En-31 steel A, B, C and D plotted vs. S · L/H2/3 under
very mild, mild, severe and very severe slurry abrasion test
conditions. The data points were fitted by the straight line
30
A
25
B

Volume loss (mm3)

C
a 25
20
D
Volume loss ( mm3)

20
15

15 10

10 5

5 0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
0 S x L (N-m)
0 20 40 60 80
Fig. 8. Volume loss of heat treated specimens of En-31 steel A, B, C and
Sliding distance (m)
D vs. product of sliding distance (S) and load (L).
14
b
Table 5
12 Volume wear rates of specimens A, B, C and D and regression coefficients
Volume loss ( mm3)

(R2) values when V was plotted vs. S · L (Fig. 8)

10
Specimen Volume wear rate Regression coefficient (R2)
8 designation (mm3/N m)
6 A 0.0007 0.9267
B 0.0009 0.9025
4 C 0.0012 0.7773
D 0.0014 0.8449
2

0
0 50 100 150 25
Load (N) VM
M
c 14 20
S
Volume loss (mm3)

12 VS
Volume loss ( mm3)

15
10

8
10
6

4 5
2

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 200 400 600 800 1000
Slurry concentration (%) SxL/ H2/3

Fig. 7. (a, b and c) Volume loss of AR specimen of En-31 steel after slurry Fig. 9. Volume loss of heat treated specimens of En-31 steel A, B, C and
abrasion test (a) vs. sliding distance (RPM) at a load of 125 N (b) vs. load D after slurry abrasion test vs. S · L/H2/3 under different test conditions.
for 1000 revolutions (c) vs. slurry concentration at a load of 125 N and (The legends refer to VM – very mild, M – mild, S – severe and VS – very
1000 revolutions. severe slurry abrasion test condition).
618 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621
and the slope of the line in each case gives volume wear rate
parameter of specimens. The volume wear rate parameters
and regression coefficients are shown in Table 6.
Fig. 10a shows SEM photograph of worn surface of
specimen D after slurry abrasion testing at a load of
35 N and 1500 revolutions.
Fig. 10. (a, b and c) SEM photographs of worn surfaces after slurry
abrasion testing. (a) specimen D, 95 N and 1500 revolutions, (b) specimen
A, 35 N, 500 revolutions, (c) specimen A, 70 N, 1000 revolutions.
Fig. 10b shows SEM photograph of worn surface of
specimen A after slurry abrasion testing at a load of 35 N
and 500 revolutions.
Fig. 10c shows SEM photograph of worn surface of
specimen A after slurry abrasion testing at a load of 70 N
and 1000 revolutions.
4. Discussion
In the present investigation slurry abrasion response of
heat treated En-31 steel was evaluated using slurry abra-
sion test apparatus. Two different approaches were
explored to assess slurry abrasion response of En-31 steel.
The first approach was based on mass and volume loss
measurements in slurry abrasion test and the second
approach which, was qualitative in nature, based on mor-
phological studies of worn out surfaces.
The volume wear loss of as received specimens of En-31
steel exhibited linear relationship with operating parame-
ters, i.e. sliding distance, normal load and slurry concentra-
tion as shown in Fig. 7a, b and c. From the results of the
present work it can be observed that normal load had
greater influence than sliding distance and slurry concen-
tration. Sahin [17] reported that applied load had relatively
less effect than sliding distance and abrasive particle size,
which may be because of the fact that loads used were
much lower than that used in the present investigation
and the abrasion tests were conducted with harder SiC
abrasive. The slurry concentration had relatively less effect
on volume loss than other operational parameters. The sig-
nificant increase in volume wear loss with increase in load
can be attributed to increased depth of cut by silica sand
abrasive particles leading to increased materials removal
and volume wear loss. In Fig. 7 the combined effect of load
and sliding distance on volume wear loss of heat treated
specimens of En-31 steel can be observed. It can be pointed
out that volume wear rate showed an increasing trend from
specimen A to D i.e. with decreasing hardness. The volume
wear rate of specimen D was observed to be two times as
that of specimen A. Thus an increase in bulk hardness of
the surface from 32 to 57 Rc has resulted in two times
increase in slurry abrasion resistance. These observations
are consistent with previous studies made by He and Zhang
[7] on heat treated carbon steels.
The volume wear loss in a abrasion test can be repre-
sented by Archard’s equation
V ¼ KS  L=H ; ð1Þ
where V is the volume wear loss, S is the sliding loss and L
is the normal load and K is the dimensionless wear coeffi-
cient. It has been established that volume wear loss in abra-
sion of pure metals in annealed condition show linear
relationship with 1/H, however, abrasion resistance of dif-
ferent materials can not be always predicted on the basis of
Eq. (1) [18]. In the present work slurry abrasion resistance
increased with an increase in hardness; the increase was not
proportionate. Atik et al. [12] also concluded that wear
 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621
resistance cannot be predicted on the basis of hardness
alone.
To rationalize the effect of other operational parameters,
the volume wear loss data obtained in the present work was
plotted vs. a parameter (S · L/H2/3), which takes into
account the combined effect of operating parameters i.e.
sliding distance S, load L and the material parameter H
as shown in Fig. 9. This plot also accounts for the severity
of slurry abrasion conditions i.e. from very mild to very
severe. Thus the slope of the line represents volume wear
rate parameter which showed an increasing trend with
increasing severity of test conditions as shown in Table 6.
Under very severe slurry abrasion test conditions volume
wear rate parameter was 2.35 times as compared to that
under mild slurry abrasion test conditions. Thus the wear
behaviour of En-31 steel, under given slurry abrasion con-
ditions can be more meaningfully represented by this vol-
ume wear rate parameter.
The detailed morphology of the worn surface of speci-
men D (centre portion) under severe slurry abrasion condi-
tions ( 95 N, 1500 revolution) is shown in Fig. 10a. Severe
grooving of the surface with scratches lying parallel to each
other and in the direction of slurry flow can be observed.
The size of the grooves produced by the silica sand abra-
dent particles was not uniform with their width varying
from 4 to 10 lm. The predominant material removal mech-
anism was observed to cutting, although the ploughed
material can be observed the right hand bottom portion
of the photograph. Some of the fractured silica sand parti-
cles can also be seen in the photograph. It is expected that
under severe slurry abrasion conditions fracture of silica
sand particles can occur and fractured silica sand particles
can also contribute to further abrasion damage. The phe-
nomenon of secondary erosion damage caused by frag-
mented abrasive particles was demonstrated by Tilly [19]
in his study on erosion of steels. The abrasive wear rate
decreases with decreasing particle size of abrasive particles
[9,20]. Although it is difficult to quantify the contribution
of secondary abrasion damage to total abrasive wear vol-
ume loss caused by smaller abrasive particles after frag-
mentation; the magnitude of secondary abrasion is
expected to increase with increasing severity of test condi-
tions. Under very mild slurry abrasion test condition
(35 N, 500 revolutions) the morphology of the worn sur-
face of specimen A was observed to be relatively smooth
with occurrence of microgrooves having sizes less than
5 lm, with relatively uniform grooves as compared to that
Table 6
Volume wear rate parameters of specimens A, B, C and D and regression
coefficients (R2) values when V was plotted vs. S · L/H2/3 (Fig. 9)
Slurry abrasion Volume wear rate Regression coefficient
conditions parameter (R2)
Very mild 0.0056 0.8458
Mild 0.0101 0.8460
Severe 0.0125 0.7937
Very severe 0.0132 0.8849
619
under severe slurry abrasion test conditions, as shown in
Fig. 10b. The material was removed by microploughing
which was reflected in lower wear rate of specimen A with
martensitic microstructure with highest hardness. Tekeli
and Gural [5] reported that martensite hardness had rela-
tively greater influence on wear rate than its volume frac-
tion. He also observed microploughing and detachment
of platelets as important wear mechanisms.
Fig. 10c shows SEM photograph of worn surface of
specimen A after slurry abrasion testing at 70 N, 1000 rev-
olutions. The grooves produced by silica sand particles
under these slurry abrasion conditions were deeper and
wider as compared to very mild wear conditions as
observed in Fig. 10b. At the center of wear scar where
the groove width was relatively more and the separation
of the material had occurred by interlinkage of grooves.
The material removed from the groove by cutting can also
be seen at the left hand side of the photograph. Under these
mild abrasion conditions (70 N, 1000 revolutions) slurry
abrasion volume loss was nearly 1.5 times as compared
to that observed under very mild slurry abrasion conditions
(35 N,500 RPM). The increase in abrasion volume loss
with increasing severity of abrasion conditions can be
attributed to increased depth of the cut by individual abra-
sive particles leading to increased rate of material removal
resulting in more volume wear loss.
The morphology of worn out surfaces did not indicate
susceptibility of martensitic microstructure to either crack
or fracture under given slurry abrasion conditions. The vol-
ume wear loss data indicate that finer morphology of the
martensite and carbides resulted in relatively greater abra-
sion resistance as compared to that of coarser martensite
and carbides. These observations are in contrast to the
observation of Badisch and Mitterer [6] on abrasive wear
of high speed steels, which may be due to different test con-
ditions. Although, it was difficult to identify carbides in
worn out surfaces, the dimensions of the grooves produced
by silica sand particles, indicate the possibility of bodily
removal of carbides. However, in case of specimen A the
rate of material removal from the matrix is expected to
be lower due to higher hardness of specimen A when com-
pared to specimens B, C and D. The large carbides have
been shown to be beneficial to abrasion resistance of white
irons, particularly with softer abrasive particles in the past
[21]. The results of the present work suggest that the coar-
ser carbides in specimens B, C and D did not apparently
contribute to abrasion resistance under given slurry abra-
sion conditions. This may be attributed to decreasing hard-
ness of the matrix, with increasing tempering temperature.
The softer matrix gets easily ploughed or cut by the rela-
tively harder silica sand particles. Once the matrix is worn
out, the support offered by the matrix to carbide particles
decreases resulting in increased rate of materials removal
and higher volume wear loss.
Although ceramic materials are known to exhibit excel-
lent abrasion resistance, their use is restricted to high tech-
nology fields and most of manufacturers and designers
620 S.G. Sapate et al. / Materials and Design 29 (2008) 613–621
prefer to use metallic materials with superior properties or
materials with surface coatings to enhance wear life of
industrial components [14]. The use of ceramic material
or hard intermetallic compounds as surface coating,
although preferred in many instances; suffer from the lim-
itation that these are prone to wear by brittle fracture par-
ticularly under severe wear conditions, which is decided by
load, velocity and abrasive particle properties. Hence
increasing surface hardness by judicious selection of heat
treatment can be one of the economic and optimum solu-
tions for enhancing wear life of industrial components.
The wear data generated through present investigation
combined with interactive effect of material properties
and operational parameters under a wide range of test con-
ditions shall be useful in designing of steels under slurry
abrasion situations in many industrial applications; trans-
portation of ore and mineral slurries through pipelines,
coal water slurry nozzles, slurry pumps, etc.
5. Conclusion
1. The slurry abrasion volume loss of En-31 steel exhibited
linear relationship with operating parameters, sliding
distance, normal load and slurry concentration. How-
ever, the magnitude of volume loss was a function of
the operating parameters.
2. The effect of normal load on slurry abrasion volume loss
was more pronounced as compared to that of slurry
concentration.
3. The increased hardness of En-31 steel by heat treatment
resulted in two fold increase in slurry abrasion
resistance.
4. The volume wear rate parameter increased with severity
of slurry abrasion test conditions. The volume wear rate
parameter increased more than two times when slurry
abrasion conditions were changed from very mild to
very severe.
5. The finer morphology of the martensite and carbides
proved beneficial to wear resistance under given slurry
abrasion conditions.
6. The results of the present investigation were explained
by a simple model,
V ¼ KS  L=H 2=3 :
7. The characteristic differences were observed in the mor-
phology of the worn out surfaces under different slurry
abrasion test conditions.
8. The important mechanisms of material removal during
slurry abrasion of heat treated En-31 steel were observed
to be ploughing and cutting.
9. Further refinement in the experimental plan with sys-
tematic variation of individual variables with quantifica-
tion of microstructure on wear rate under different test
conditions will be useful in providing more comprehen-
sive understanding of the phenomenon.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Director, VNIT for provid-
ing necessary facilities in carrying out this investigation.
The authors are grateful to Dr. Ramanna Rao,
JNARDDC Nagpur for his help during SEM work.
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