Microstructure and tribological behaviour of CoCrCuFeTi high entropy alloy reinforced SS304 through friction stir processing

N Radhika; S Aravind Krishna; Animesh Kumar Basak; Adeolu Adesoji Adediran

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-54267-7

Microstructure and tribological behaviour of CoCrCuFeTi high entropy alloy reinforced SS304 through friction stir processing

Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 13;14(1):3662. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-54267-7.

Authors

N Radhika¹, S Aravind Krishna², Animesh Kumar Basak³, Adeolu Adesoji Adediran^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India. n_radhika1@cb.amrita.edu.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India.
³ Adelaide Microscopy, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Landmark University, P.M.B. 1001, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria. dladesoji@gmail.com.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. dladesoji@gmail.com.

Abstract

Surface modification by suitable technique aids in improving the characteristics of material to resist severe wear in demanding environments and challenging applications. The present study aims to analyse the tribological performance of Stainless Steel (SS304) reinforced with CoCrCuFeTi High Entropy Alloy (HEA) through friction stir processing and compares the results with annealed specimens. The CoCrCuFeTi HEA was ball milled and revealed irregular fragment particles with Body Centred Cubic (BCC) phase. The processed samples exhibited excellent refinement in grains with uniform HEA reinforcement distribution. The grains were observed to be in nano level post-annealing promoting exceptional microhardness. The pin-on-disc wear test was conducted by varying load (10-40N), sliding velocity (0.5-3.5 m/s) and sliding distance (500-2000 m) and the respective worn surface was analysed. The processed sample with HEA after annealing offered 29.8%, 57.4% and 58.49% improved wear resistance at the minimum level of load, sliding velocity and sliding distance than the processed base samples. The worn morphology revealed delamination, abrasion, adhesion and oxide layer formation to be the predominant wear mechanisms.

Keywords: Annealing; Friction stir processing; High entropy alloys; Tribology; Wear resistance.