Wear in cast titanium carbide reinforced ferrous composites under dry sliding

Wear in composites containing 8, 15 and 25 vol.% of titanium carbide (TiC) in a pearlitic matrix synthesized by solidification processing, has been tested under dry sliding in a block on ring Timken wear testing machine under loads of 131.8, 187.5 and 254.5 N and sliding velocities of 25.67 x 10(-2), 41.07 x 10(-2) and 56.47 x 10(-2) m/s. The volume of wear varies linearly with the sliding distance under various test conditions as predicted by Archard's equation. The Volume wear rate increases linearly with increase in load as predicted by Archard's equation, more rapidly in the composites containing lower Volume fraction of carbide. With increase in TiC content, the volume wear rate reduces presumably due to higher wear resistance of TiC but the rate appears to reach a steady value at higher TiC content. The wear coefficient of the composite reduces with increase in TiC content in the composite. However, the extent of reduction is more in case of composites with lower TiC content. When the individual contribution to the wear coefficient by the constituents have been evaluated by a rule of mixture it appears that TiC has a negative wear coefficient which could be an artifact developing due to application of a simple rule of mixture to a situation of complex interaction as it exists in composite. However, wear coefficient of the matrix pearlite varied from 1.77 to 1.88 x 10(-4) which is close to that observed by other workers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.