Magnetic-field tribological behaviors of aluminum-alloy and steel

This paper used aluminum-alloy-2A02 (paramagnetic) and High-Speed-Steel (HSS) W18Cr4V (ferromagnetic) as the research objects to study the effect of DC magnetic-field on the dry tribology performance adopting the mutual matching methods (aluminum-alloy pin to HSS ring and HSS pin to aluminum-alloy to HSS ring, respectively). The wear rate of aluminum-alloy ring coupled with HSS pin was larger than that of pin coupled with HSS ring, which indicated that the influence of contacted surface size and hardness of friction pairs should be considered in the tribological research and application. The material of high magnetic permeability led to the wear rate decreases under a magnetic-field. The mechanism of sliding wear namely the ferromagnetic debris is adsorbed by HSS surface under the magnetic force. The wear rate is affected by the magnetic force depending on pin/disc material in a magnetic-field. The friction coefficient of aluminum-alloy pin/HSS ring is larger than that of HSS pin/aluminum-alloy ring, indicating the high difference of magnetic permeability for the coupled materials is disadvantageous to the antifriction effect of magnetic-field.