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Microstructure and Wear Resistance of Gray Cast Iron Synergistically Manipulated by Nano-sized TiC–TiB2 Ceramic Particles

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Abstract

The current research studied the influence of TiC–TiB2 ceramic nanoparticles on the microstructure and wear properties of gray cast irons. The tribological performance of gray cast irons was evaluated on a universal mechanical tribometer with a ball-on-plate reciprocating sliding test rig. It was found that the addition of nanoparticles effectively refined the as-cast microstructure as the graphite flakes and lamellar structures in pearlite became finer with fewer segregation regions. Using the edge-to-edge matching model, it was found that the interplanar spacing mismatch and interatomic spacing misfit between nanoparticles and main phases in the matrix were less than 10%, which indicated the nanoparticles acted as external cores to promote the nucleation of graphite, austenite and ferrite. For wear resistance, it was observed that introducing the nanoparticles decreased the wear volumes of gray cast irons by up to 43.4% under a normal load of 60 N and sliding speed of 80 mm/s. After examining the wear tracks, it could be seen that the wear mechanisms were dominated by adhesive wear and abrasive wear. The introduction of nanoparticles reduced the spalls, smearing areas and grooves. The nanoparticles harden and toughen the substrates, blocked dislocations, separated the mating surfaces and reduced the size of wear debris. The findings in this research provide a novel approach to prepare high wear-resistant gray cast irons.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.LQ21E010007, the Chunhui Program Cooperative Research Project of Ministry of Education under Grant No.HZKY20220191, the General Research Project of the Department of Education at Zhejiang Province under Grant No.Y202250384, the Excellent-Publication Cultivation Funding at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University under Grant No.LW-YP2021072.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Yu Zhang & Bingxu Wang

  2. Zhejiang Sci-Tech University Shengzhou Innovation Research Institute, Shengzhou, 312400, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Bingxu Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Automobiles Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, Jilin, People’s Republic of China

    Baixin Dong & Feng Qiu

  4. Automotive Tribology Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Computer Science, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA

    Bingxu Wang, Feng Qiu, Gary C. Barber & Qian Zou

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  1. Yu Zhang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by YZ and BW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YZ, BW and BD. The resources, fundings and supervisions were provided by FQ and GCB. The manuscript was edited by GCB and QZ. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bingxu Wang or Baixin Dong.

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Zhang, Y., Wang, B., Dong, B. et al. Microstructure and Wear Resistance of Gray Cast Iron Synergistically Manipulated by Nano-sized TiC–TiB2 Ceramic Particles. Tribol Lett 71, 84 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-023-01756-x

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