Focusing on the evolution behavior of friction and wear performance of 38CrMoAl high-strength steel in simulated marine salt spray environment, the work aims to reveal the corrosion-wear synergistic damage mechanism to support the service safety and surface protection design of marine engineering components made of this steel. 38CrMoAl steel was processed into 20 mm×20 mm×20 mm cubic specimens by wire cutting, and all edges were sealed with resin to avoid the interference of edge corrosion effects. The specimens were ground and polished step by step with 400# to 2000# SiC sandpapers to a mirror finish, then ultrasonically cleaned for 5 minutes and dried for subsequent tests. Salt spray corrosion tests were carried out in a DCTC-1200P chamber in accordance with GB/T 10125—2021, using 5wt.% NaCl solution with a pH value of 3.5, a test temperature of (35±2) ℃ and a salt spray deposition rate of 2 mL/(cm2·h). Six corrosion periods including 0 h, 48 h, 96 h, 192 h, 288 h and 480 h were set to explore the time-dependent tribological performance changes. Reciprocating friction and wear tests were conducted on a Bruker UMT-TriboLab tribometer with a 6.35 mm Al2O3 ceramic ball as the counterpart, under a normal load of 10 N, a reciprocating frequency of 1 Hz, a stroke length of 5 mm and a test duration of 30 min. The macro-morphology, micro-morphology, phase composition and elemental distribution of corroded and worn surfaces were characterized by optical microscope, X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer, and the wear depth, volume and specific wear rate were quantitatively measured by an ET200A-3D profilometer.
Experimental results indicate that the corrosion products formed on 38CrMoAl steel are mainly Fe3O4 and α-FeOOH with a loose and porous microstructure, and the thickness of the corrosion product layer increases continuously from 132 μm at 48 h to 232 μm at 480 h with the extension of corrosion time. After pre-corrosion treatment, the stable friction coefficient of the steel decreases significantly from 0.76 of the uncorroded sample to a stable range of 0.48-0.56, and the maximum wear depth rises from 5.09 μm to 91.81 μm. The specific wear rate presents a typical U-shaped nonlinear variation with corrosion time, which is 0.035 6×10‒12 m3/(N·m) for the uncorroded sample, and 1.58×10‒12, 0.54×10‒12, 0.73×10‒12, 3.31×10‒12 and 3.33×10‒12 m3/(N·m) for the specimens corroded for 48 h, 96 h, 192 h, 288 h and 480 h, respectively.
The tribological properties of 38CrMoAl steel are dominated by the dual competitive effect of the corrosion product layer. At the initial corrosion stage, the thin and loose product layer is quickly worn away under friction shear, leading to a sharp increase in wear rate. With moderate corrosion duration, the product layer acts as a lubricating third body to effectively separate the friction pair and reduce wear. When corrosion time exceeds 288 h, Cl ions penetrate the product layer and induce pitting corrosion at the product-substrate interface, which becomes the core source of fatigue crack initiation and propagation. The wear mechanism transforms from single abrasive wear to the synergistic effect of abrasive wear and fatigue wear, and fatigue wear gradually dominates with prolonged corrosion. This work systematically clarifies the nonlinear evolution law and corrosion-wear coupling mechanism of 38CrMoAl steel in marine environment, which enriches the research on the long-term service performance of this nitriding steel under marine atmospheric corrosion conditions.
Key words
38CrMoAl /
marine environment /
corrosion wear /
friction and wear performance
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Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China Key Project (12532003); Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2024QE253); Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province General Project (ZR2020ME130)
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