Analysis of Dry Wear, Microstructure and Thermodynamic Parameters of CuAlTa Bulk Material

The microstructural properties and thermodynamic parameters before and after abrasion were examined for a bulk Cu86Al10Ta4 (%wt.) shape memory alloy produced by the arc-melting method. From the XRD and SEM–EDX microstructural analysis, it was found that the alloy provided $$\alpha$$ (Cu), $${\gamma }_{1}$$ (Cu9Al4), $${\gamma }_{1}^{\prime}(2H)$$ , $${\beta }_{1}^{\prime}(18R)$$ , and Ta2Al3 phases before wear, while, after abrasion, depth grooves, wear debris, and ridges and delamination structures were observed. In the forward phase transformation, the DSC result displayed a single narrow peak, which represented $${\beta }_{1}\to {\gamma }_{1}^{\prime}$$ , which for the reverse martensitic phase transformation the peak was wide and displayed $${\gamma }_{1}^{\prime}\to {\beta }_{1}$$ . It was observed that the volume and mass losses, friction coefficient, wear coefficient, and wear rates are affected by changing the distance and applying load. The value of phase transformation temperatures, enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs free energy, and elastic energy of the bulk material changed after abrasion. Moreover, the post wear alloy exhibited shape memory behavior in both the heating and cooling processes.