Sliding Wear Characteristics of Ultrafine-Grained Non-Strain-Hardening Aluminum-Magnesium Alloys

Coarse grains of commercial 5052 Al and 5083 Al alloys were refined by the accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process. Average grain size of the refined microstructure was 200 nm. The 5083 Al alloy that has higher Mg content required more deformation for the refinement. Dry sliding wear behavior of the ultra-fine grained (UFG) Al alloys was investigated using a pin-on-disk wear tester at room temperature. The UFG microstructure of the processed alloys hardly increased the wear resistance of the Al alloys in spite of the increased strength and hardness. Wear rate of the UFG Al alloys was higher than that of the non processed coarse-grained starting alloys. The SEM observation of worn surfaces revealed that surface deformation controlled the wear. The low wear resistance of the UFG Al alloys was attributed to non-equilibrium and unstable grain boundaries and low strain hardening capability of the alloys.