Correlation of wear debris morphology and wear mechanism of Ti-5Al-4V-0.6Mo-0.4Fe slides against tungsten carbide under dry and cryogenic conditions

Wear mechanisms of Ti-5Al-4V-0.6Mo-0.4Fe (Ti54) sliding against tungsten carbide under dry and cryogenic liquid nitrogen conditions were studied through the analysis of wear debris. The morphology of titanium alloy Ti54 wear debris collected from different sliding conditions was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). In general, two different shapes of wear debris were detected. These are flake-type debris that had been collected from dry sliding condition and cutting chip-like debris from cryogenic sliding. The analysis suggests that different wear mechanisms, which are adhesive wear generated at dry sliding and abrasive wear at cryogenic condition, were in action.