Unraveling the significant role of retained austenite on the dry sliding wear behavior of medium manganese steel

For wear resistant steels, there is generally a linear relationship between the initial hardness and wear resistance, yet a high initial hardness limits the formability of components. The intrinsic ductility of austenite and strain hardening produced from the transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) effect during service opens a new window for this contradiction. Herein, the wear resistance and the corresponding failure mechanisms of 5Mn steels after different heat treatment processes were evaluated using a ball-on-disk sliding test under dry conditions. The wear behaviors of the counterbodies were also studied to elucidate the wear mechanism of the tribo-system. The results show that the microstructures of the hot-rolled and air-cooled steel were mainly martensite. When the intercritical annealing temperature was relatively low (