Wear, 123 (1988) 241 - 251 241

THE EFFECT OF HARDNESS ON THE TRANSITION OF THE

ABRASIVE WEAR MECHANISM OF STEELS*

K. ~OKKIRI~AWA and Et. KATO

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku University,
Sendai 980 {Japan)

z. 2. LI

Single-point scratch tests, using a hemispherical pm specimen made of

diamond on a flat specimen, were carried out in a scanning electron micro-
scope.
Five kinds of heat-treated bearing steels (SUJ 2) were used for the flat
specimen. One was quenched at 860 “C (750 WV), and the others were
quenched at 860 % and then tempered at 200 “c, 350 %, 500 “c and 750 “C
(650 WV, 560 HV, 380 HV and 250 HV) respectively.
In situ observations of the wear processes in the scanning electron
microscope show that the abrasive wear mechanism changes from the pfough-
ing mode to the wedge-forrn~~ mode and then to the cutting mode as the
degree of penetration increases. Based on the observations, an abrasive wear
diagram was obtained as a function of the degree of penetration and hard-
ness of the flat specimen. The critical degree of penetration for the transition
between the pioughing mode and the wedge-forming mode was independent
of the hardness. However, the critical degree of penetration for the transition
between the wedge-forming mode and the cutting mode decreased with
increasing hardness. The degree of wear for the cutting mode increased with
increasing hardness.

1. Introduction

In abrasive wear, the most spout poseur is the hardness of the

abraded material. Khruschov [l] first investigated the effect of the hardness
on abrasive wear. The relationship between the wear resistance and hardness
is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The wear resistance for pure metals and
annealed steels is in proportion to the hardness. The wear resistance for heat-

.*Paper presented at the International Conference on Wear of Materids, Houston,

TX, U.S.A., April 5 - 9, 1987.

0043-1648/8g/$3.50 @ Elsevier ~equoia/~inted in The Netherlands

242

I .Pure Metals and

Hardness
Fig. 1. Schematic relationship between wear resistance and hardness. (Khruschov [ 1 I.)

treated steels also increases with the hardness but it is less than that of pure
metals at the same hardness.
Subsequently, several researchers investigated the effect of hardness on
abrasive wear over a wide range of materials and heat treatments [2 - 41.
Murray et al. [5] attempted to explain the above macroscopic abrasive wear
characteristics from the viewpoint of the microscopic wear mechanism. Such
an approach, to connect the microscopic wear mechanism with macroscopic
wear characteristics, is surely useful for a better understanding of the wear
phenomenon.
Recently, several researchers have investigated microscopic wear mecha-
nisms by in situ observations of the wear process in the scanning electron
microscope. Bates et al. [6] observed the formation of flake-like wear debris
in abrasive sliding. Glaeser [7] observed the effect of the number of passes
on the sliding wear. Kayaba et al. [8] observed the micromechanism of
wedge formation. Kayaba et al. [9] showed the effect of degree of penetra-
tion of a spherical model asperity on the abrasive wear mode and wear rate.
Ahman and Oberg [lo] examined scratching processes for metal, poly-
(methyl methacrylate) etc. with a pyramidal model asperity. Kato and
Hokkirigawa [ 111 presented an abrasive wear diagram based on observations
of the wear process in the scanning electron microscope. Kato et al. [12]
investigated three-dimensional shape effects on the abrasive wear mecha-
nism. Lim and Brunton [13] observed the formation of sheet-like wear
debris using a pin-on-disk rig in the scanning electron microscope. Calabrese
et al. [14] observed wear processes in the scanning electron microscope for
several material combinations. All these investigations provided new infor-
mation on the microscopic wear mechanism. However, the microscopic wear
mechanism has not been related satisfactorily to the macroscopic wear
characteristics.
In this paper, the effect of hardness on the abrasive wear mechanism of
steels was investigated microscopically by in situ experiments in a scanning
electron microscope. These microscopic results were related to the macro-
scopic abrasive wear characteristics.

2. Experimental apparatus and procedure

Figure 2 shows the diagram of the testing apparatus for the scanning
electron microscope. The upper pin specimen was a model abrasive made of
 243

D.C Amplifier

Upper Specimen
Hdder

Upper Specimen
(fixed f

Lower Specimen
(lo be driven)

Flat Bearing
Stmin Gauge

Weight

Strain Amplifier
Fig. 2. Diagram of testing apparatus for the scanning electron microscope.

diamond. Its tip was spherical with a radius of 25 pm. The maximum surface
roughness of the tip of the pin specimen was 0.5 pm. The lower flat speci-
men was bearing steel (SUJ 2) which has the chemical com~sition shown in
Table 1. Five specimens A - E were quenched and tempered at different
~mpemt~es to provide a range of h~dnesses as shown in Table 2. These

TABLE 1
Chemical composition of specimen

ikfateriut Composition (wt.%)

c si Mn P S Cr

Bearing steet 0.95 0.15 0.50 0.025 0.025 1.30

TABLE 2
Heat treatments and hardnesses of specimen@

Specimen Tempering ~Ur~~~SS

designation temperature (“C) (WV 2.94 N)

3 500
750 250
380
C 350 560
D 200 650
E Without tempering 750

aAustenizing temperature, 860 “C; conditions of quenching, water at 20 “C.

244

specimens were finally buff polished and cleaned with acetone in an ultra-
sonic cleaner. The maximum surface roughness of the specimens before
testing was less than 0.2 pm.
After the pm specimen and flat specimen were placed in the testing
apparatus, a normal load was applied with weights. Several normal loads,
from 0.1 N to 2.0 N, were examined. The apparatus was mounted in the
scanning electron microscope and the abrasive wear process was observed
successively by driving the lower flat specimen manually past the pin. The
sliding speed was maintained at about 15 ym s I. The sliding distance was
measured with the strain gauge assembly attached to the leaf spring.
In order to have a fundamental understanding of the effect of normal
load on the abrasive wear mechanism, the degree of penetration D,, of the
pin specimen was introduced as a severity index of contact. This is defined
by

f),= h
a
where u is half of the contact width and h is the depth of the groove as
shown in Fig. 3. If we assume the contact pressure is equal to the hardness
Hv of the flat specimen, D, of eqn. (1) is expressed as a function of the
normal load as follows:

where W is the normal load and R is the radius of the pin specimen.

Fig. 3. A contact model between a hemisphere and a flat surface in sliding.

3. Results

3.1. Wear modes observed in the sccanning electron m icroseope

Figure 4 shows representative wear modes observed in the scanning
electron microscope for specimen C at D, = 0.1, 0.21 and 0.27. Figures
4(a 1), 4( a2) and 4(a,) show the ploughing mode, where a groove is formed
which has ridges on both sides but no wear debris is formed. Figures 4(b,),
4(b,) and 4(b,) show the wedge-forming mode, where a wedge is formed in
front of the pin specimen. Figures 4(c,), 4(c,) and 4(cs) show the cutting
 245

20pm
Groove Contact Point
Profile of
Groove E
3
L-J
20vm

(a31

ic,l
Fig. 4. Wear modes observed in the scanning electron microscope. (al), (az), (as): plough-
ing mode (specimen C, D, = 0.1, L = 1 mm). (bl), (bz), (b3): wedge-forming mode (speei-
men C, D, = 0.21, L = 1.3 mm). (cl), (q), (es): cutting mode (specimen C, D, = 0.27,
L = 0.3 mm).

mode, where long ribbon-like wear debris is formed by the cutting action of
the pin specimen.
Thus the wear mode changes from ploughing, to wedge forming and
then to cutting according to the increase in the degree of penetration. If two
critical degrees of penetration are designated by D,* and I&**, corresponding
to the transition from the ploughing mode to the wedge-forming mode and
the transition from the wedge-forming mode to the cutting mode respec-
tively, the wear modes can be summarized as follows.
(1) D, < I&*, ploughing mode.
(2) D,* < D, < D,**, wedge-forming mode.
(3) .13p**< f),, cutting mode.
3.2. Effect of hardness on the critical degree of penetration
The wear modes observed in all tests are summarized in Fig. 5. The
resulting wear mode diagram is a function of the degree of penetration D,,
and hardness Hv. In Fig. 5, the regions of ploughing, wedge forming and
cutting are divided by two solid lines which correspond to D,,* and D,,**. It
can be seen in Fig. 5 that the value of DP*, which corresponds to the transi-
tion from the ploughing mode to the wedge-forming mode, is independent of
the hardness and is about 0.17. In contrast, the value of DP**, which corres-
ponds to the transition from the wedge-forming mode to the cutting mode,
decreases with increasing hardness.
Therefore, the region of the wedge-forming mode decreases hut. that
of the cutting mode increases with increasing hardness.

Wear mode diagram ------heorj*

r’% had-perfec!iy

“cm-e;s -

Fig. 5. Wear mode diagram: II,*, critical degree of penetration which corresponds to the
transition from the ploughing mode to the wedge-forming mode; TIP**, critical degree of
penetration which corresponds to the transition from the wedge-forming mode to the
cutting mode.

3.3. Effect of hardness on the degree of wear

In the schematic profile of a groove shown in Fig. 6, the net groove area
A is given by A =A’-A”, where A’ is the apparent groove area and A” is
the area of both side ridges. Ten meas~ements were carried out for each
groove. The degree of wear o was defined as the average value of A/A’, i.e.
the ratio of the wear volume to the apparent groove volume.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between o and D, for each specimen.
It can be seen in Fig. 7 that the value of (Yis very small at D, < D,* where
the plough~g mode occurs, 0.7 - 0.95 at D, > I&** where the cutting mode
occurs and intermediate at D,* < I), < DP** where the wedge-forming mode
occurs. It can also be seen in Fig. 7 that the curve shifts to the left as the
specimen hardness increases.
Figure 8 shows the relationship between the degree of wear for cutting
ct’, and the hardness H\-. It can be seen in Fig. 8 that the value of cx, increases
gradually with the hardness.
 A”[Area of Side Ridges)

A’ IApparent Gmove Area 1

NetGrooveArea~A=A’-A”
Degree of Wear- a = A/A’
Fig. 6. Schematic profile of groove.

Fig. 7. Degree of wear as a function of the degree of penetration.

I I I/I Y
0 02 O,L 0.6 0 8 1.o
OL--J Shearing Strength at the
200 Lo3 600 800
Hardness H, Contact Interface f

Fig. 8. Degree of wear for the cutting mode as a function of hardness.

Fig. 9. Abrasive wear diagram (proposed by Kato and Wokkirigawa [Ill).

4. Discussion

4.1. Effect of ~~rd~es~ on the ab~~s~uewear ~ec~u~~s~

It can be summarized from Figs. 5 and 8 that the hardness has the fol-
lowing two effects on the microscopic abrasive wear mechanism.
(1) The value of II,** decreases with increasing hardness (i.e. the region
of cutting increases with increasing hardness).
(2) The value of cy,, which is the ratio of the wear volume to the appar-
ent groove volume for the cutting mode, increases with increasing hardness.
Here the effect of hardness on the critical degree of penetration will be
discussed. Based on slip-line field analysis of wear modes by Challen and
Oxley [ 151, Kato and Hokkirigawa [ll] obtained an abrasive wear diagram
for rigid-perfectly plastic bodies. Figure 9 shows a diagram in which wear
modes are divided by sohd lines as a function of D, and shearing strength f
at the contact interface, where f is a nondimensional value of the shearing
strength at the contact interface divided by the shearing strength of the bulk
material, For steels contacting under non-~ubri~t~ conditions, the value of
f may be about 0.7 [ll]. At f= 0.7 in Fig. 9, II,* = 0.17 and LIP** = 0.23
248

are obtained. These theoretical predictions are shown in Fig. 5. It is obvious

by comparing the experimental results and theoretical predictions in Fig. 5
that the experimental value of D,* agrees well with the theoretical value
regardless of the hardness. Alternatively, the experimental value of Lilt**
agrees with the theoretical value at high hardness but it increases with
decreasing hardness. This tendency may be caused by strain hardening [ 161.

4.2. Abrasive wear equation based on a microscopic wear mechanism

For a better understanding of macroscopic abrasive wear which occurs
at multiple contact points, we propose the following modified wear equation
based on the wear equations of Mulhearn and Samuels [17] and Murray
etal. [5]:

where V is the wear volume, W is the normal load, L is the sliding distance,
C is the shape factor of abrasive grains and & is the fraction of contact
points where the cutting mode occurs. In eqn. (3) only wear by cutting is
taken into account and wear by wedge forming and ploughing is neglected.
By using eqn. (31, the wear resistance R, which is defined here as re-
ciprocal of wear volume per unit sliding distance and unit normal load, is
given by the following equation:

(4)

The values of 01, for the specimens used in this paper are given in Fig. 8. The
values of /3, for the specimens used in this paper can be estimated as follows.
To obtain the values of &, the two-dimensional attack angle B is used
instead of JJP. The value of 0 is related to D, experimentally by the follow-
ing equation [ 111:
1 - cos 6
D, = 0.8 (5)
sin 0
A 8 scale calculated from eqn. (5) is marked in Fig. 5 co~esponding to the
D, scale. If the distribution of attack angles and the critical attack angle 0**
(which corresponds to DP**) are given, we can estimate the value of PCas a
fraction of the attack angles which are larger than 0**. Doyle and Samuels
[ 181 obtained the distribution of attack angles for a silicon carbide grinding
wheel dressed with a single-point diamond tool, which is shown in Fig. 10.
Using this distribution of attack angles and the values of 8** shown in
Fig. 5, we can obtain Fig. 11 which shows the effect of hardness on PC.It
can be seen in Fig. 11 that the value of 6, increases with hardness.
Scratch tests for pure metals and annealed steels were not carried out
in this paper, so the values of (x, and /3, for these materials are not known.
However, it is popularly known that wear resistance for pure metals and
 249

LOO 600
Attack Angle 9 t degree ) Hardness H,

Fig. 10. Distribution of attack angle (obtained by Doyle and Samuels [18]).

Fig. 11. Fraction of contact points where the cutting mode occurs as a function of
hardness.

Hardness Hv

Fig. 12. Estimated relationship between wear resistance and hardness (calculated using
eqn. (4)).

annealed steels is in proportion to the hardness. Therefore both CY,and 0,

may be constant for these materials.
Figure 12 shows the relationship between the wear resistance R and the
hardness Hv for the specimens used in this paper, which is obtained by sub-
stituting the values of (x, and & shown in Figs. 8 and 11 into eqn. (4). This
estimated re~tionship between wear resistance and hardness is very similar
to the relationship for the heat-treated steels shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, it
may be concluded that eqn. (4) is an effective equation for the estimation
of the wear resistance.
In the past, only the material hardness was regarded as an important
parameter in abrasive wear. However, from the results described above, it
may be concluded that the abrasive wear resistance depends on not only the
material hardness but also QI,and p,, where cy, is the ratio of wear volume
to- apparent groove volume for the cutting mode and 0, is the fraction of
contact points where the cutting mode occurs. Single-point scratch tests in
the scanning electron microscope are useful for determining the values of
CY,and PC.The value of (x, can be determined from the profile of the groove
and the value of 0, can be estimated by using the value of II,** (or 6**)
which can be determined from direct observation of the wear mode.
250

5. Conclusions

The effect of hardness on the abrasive wear mechanism of steels was

~vestigated micros~opica~y by in situ experiments in the scanning electron
microscope. The following results were obtained.
(1) The wear modes of ploughing, wedge forming and cutting were
observed and each wear mode was related to the degree of penetration of the
diamond pm into the heat-treated steel plate and the hardness of the steel
plate using the abrasive wear diagram.
(2) The critical degree of penetration for the transition between the
wedge-forming mode and the cutting mode decreases with increasing hard-
ness.
(3) The degree of wear for the cutting mode, which is the ratio of the
wear volume to the apparent groove volume, increases with increasing
hardness.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express their appreciation to Kosaka Labora-

tory Ltd. for supporting this study.

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