Development of Mathematical model for prediction of abrasive wear behaviour in agricultural grade medium carbon steel

Abstract

Reducing the low stress abrasive wear of materials has emerged as a major challenge for researches conducted in the field of engineering for sometime. In this direction, efforts are made for development of prediction model for abrasive wear rate of medium carbon steel like SAE-6150 based on the influencing factors for precise prediction of wear rate and selection of appropriate levels of factors. SAE-6150 steel is tested using dry sand abrasion test rig after heat-treatment (annealing, intercritically annealing and quenched and tempered) and shot peening (ranging 0.17- 0.47 A at an interval of 0.1 A). The hardness and abrasive wear resistance of as-received and annealed steel (ferrito pearlitic structure) are significantly lower in comparison to inercritically annealed (ferrito-martensitic structure) as well as quenched and tempered (tempered martensitic structure) irrespective of peening intensity. The peening intensity reduces the wear rate, if limited to a critical value of 0.17 A. The functional relationship between wear rate and the factors influencing it is found statistically significant and can be used for prediction of abrasive wear at a given level of factors.