Effect of Temperature and Sliding Velocity on the Dry Sliding Wear Mechanisms of Boron Modified Ti-6Al-4V Alloys

The dry sliding wear behavior of as-cast pristine and boron-modified Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64) alloys (having 0.3 and 0.55 wt% B) is investigated using pin-on-disc experiments with the pin being Ti64 alloy and the EN31 steel disc. Experiments are performed at sliding speeds (s) of 1, 2, and 4 m/s and temperatures 300 and 573 K. A mixed response in wear behavior is observed. At the lowest sliding speed, all three alloys (except 0.55B alloy at 300 K) exhibit similar wear rates, with abrasive wear being the dominant wear mechanism. At 2 m/s, temperature and s increase, and adhesive wear takes over along with delamination wear. Here, the 0.55B sample shows the highest wear rate due to the debonding of more TiB particles, which increases three body abrasion wear. With further increase in s to 4 m/s, delamination and oxidation wear are observed for all the samples. XRD evaluation shows traces of TiO2 and Fe2O3, which imply the formation of MML in samples tested at s = 4 m/s, which is also validated through subsurface microstructure analysis. It is found that MML having more TiB particles has more stability, because of which 0.3B samples show higher wear rate.