Preparation and tribological behavior of 316L honeycomb reinforced ZA8 composite

Three-dimensional reinforcements can improve overall mechanical and wear properties of matrix material. However, the structure of traditional three-dimensional reinforcement is difficult to control. In this work, the 316L honeycomb structure were fabricated by selective laser melting, and ZA8 alloy were added to prepared 316L/ZA8 alloy composites using squeeze casting. The tribological behavior of ZA8 alloy and composites at different temperatures was studied through pin-on-disc wear tests. The results show that the addition of honeycomb reinforcements can reduce the friction coefficient and improve the stability of ZA8 alloy after running-in stage at room temperature. At high temperatures, the reinforcements can restrain the plastic deformation of ZA8 alloy. The wear rate of the composite decreases with the increase of honeycomb apertures at both room temperature and 120 °C. The reinforcements have effect on the wear mechanisms of ZA8 alloy at different temperatures. The wear mechanism of ZA8 at different temperatures is mainly adhesive wear, while the plastic deformation on the surface of ZA8 is more severe at 120 °C. The composites with small honeycomb aperture exhibit adhesive wear and severe abrasive wear at both room temperature and 120 °C, accompanying with significant oxidative wear at 120 °C. The wear mechanism of composites with larger honeycomb aperture at different temperatures is mainly adhesive wear.