MORPHOLOGY OF WEAR DEBRIS DURING DRY SLIDING OF Ti6Al4V/TiC COMPOSITE AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES IN VACUUM CONDITIONS

A high temperature-dependent wear setup was employed to examine the Ti-6Al-4V (an [Formula: see text] titanium alloy) tribological properties under vacuum environments. The components of Ti-6Al-4V alloys used in aerospace and space environments are subjected to relative motion which results in the occurrence of tribo phenomenon. In this study, Ti6Al4V pin slid against SS316L disc under vacuum conditions at high temperature. The analysis of the wear debris clearly shows the effect of wear morphology of the worn surface which was analyzed by Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) equipped with Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The fine particles were observed at room temperature under vacuum conditions where Adiabatic Shear Band (ASB)-effects of plastic deformations and Mechanically Mixed Layer (MML) are observed at 137.3 N and 0.01[Formula: see text]ms[Formula: see text]. The tribological tests were carried out employing a pin on disc configurations at high temperatures (up to 400 ∘ C). Further, its influence on wear debris under (137.3 N) high load and 0.01[Formula: see text]ms[Formula: see text] was also tested. The experimental results showed that various types of debris exhibited decreasing wear rates with increases in temperatures.