Comparison of Dry Sliding Tribological Behavior of Lean Duplex Stainless Steel and Standard Austenitic Stainless Steel

Abstract

Lean duplex stainless steels (LDSS) emerged as a competitive duplex stainless steels (DSS) where Ni is partially replaced by lower cost alloying elements such as Mn and N. However, to date there has been little to no information on the tribological behavior of LDSS. This paper aims to study the dry sliding wear behavior of LDSS LDX 2101 in comparison with a standard austenitic stainless steel (ASS) AISI 304L. To achieve this goal, microstructural characterization was performed by X-ray diffraction, optical (OM), scanning (SEM) and transmission electron (TEM) microscopy. Moreover, microhardness and surface roughness were evaluated. Ball-on-disk wear tests were carried out at 10 and 20 N with constant velocity and different sliding distances. Independently of applied loads, in both steels, the wear mechanism is characterized by plastic deformation, strain-induced martensite transformation, cracks nucleation, delamination and abrasion. In LDX 2101, at the highest applied load, the strain localization in phase boundaries increases cracks nucleation, leading to a higher weight loss in comparison with AISI 304L. Therefore, for wear resistance applications, LDX 2101 is a cost-effective replacement to AISI 304L when the applied load is low enough.