Experimental and modelling study of the effect of martensite volume fraction on friction and wear of dual-phase steel at microscopic scale

Abstract In this work, the influence of martensite volume fraction, load and attack angle on hardness, friction and wear of ferrite and martensite phases of a dual-phase microstructure is investigated through nanoindentation and scratch tests with conical tips. Friction coefficient increases with the attack angle and is always higher for ferrite than for martensite. For martensite phase, friction coefficient increases and wear resistance decreases as martensite volume fraction increases. As the attack angle increases, wear mechanism changes from ploughing to cutting for martensite. Experimental results correlate to the Axen & al. approach based on the Equal Pressure model.