Metal Science and Heat Treatment

Vol. 52, Nos. 9 10, 2010

UDC 539.386(1), 43/46

SPECIAL FEATURES OF FRICTION HARDENING OF AUSTENITIC STEEL

WITH UNSTABLE g-PHASE
V. P. Baraz,1 B. P. Kartak,1 and O. N. Mineeva1
Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. 10, pp. 20 22, October, 2010.

Special features of the effect of surface deformation by friction on the phase composition, structure, and
strength characteristics of flattened strip from unstable austenitic Fe Cr Ni steel are studied. The treatment
activates the g a strain-induced transformation, promotes formation of a nanocrystalline-size structure in a
thin layer, increases the microhardness and the elastic limit, and intensifies Bauschinger strain.

Key words: unstable austenitic steel, surface friction treatment, phase composition, nanostructured
state, strength characteristics.

INTRODUCTION

METHODS OF STUDY

It is known that deformation by friction causes a bulk

stress state with high specific pressure in the surface layer of
the loaded material [1]. Structures of a nanocrystal scale
form in this layer (with a thickness of up to 10 mm). The appearance of friction-induced nanostructures is assumed to be
a result of the effect of friction, when plastic strain develops
by a rotation mechanism rather than by the conventional
shear mechanism of slip and twinning.
Under such strain conditions the phase composition
of the material may change (in the case of occurrence of a
polymorphic transformation). Austenitic steels with unstable
g-phase are typical candidates for such a variant, because
they can undergo a polymorphic reaction yielding strain
martensite.
Such treatment by friction is quite effective for articles
with small cross section (like spring ribbon). This is explainable by the fact that the forming thin hardened layer on the
surface is commensurable with the thickness of the articles
themselves. The contribution of friction strain can be quite
noticeable in the formation of the structure of the surface
layer and thus can affect the properties. Specifically, this
should affect the behavior of articles subjected to bending
loads.
The aim of the present work consisted in studying the effect of sliding friction loading on the formation of phase
composition, fine structure, and special features of strain
hardening of an austenitic Fe Cr Ni steel.

We
studied
chromium-nickel
steel
ZI126
(12Kh17N8G2S2MF) belonging to the group of austenitic
steels with unstable g-phase. The content of the main elements in the steel was (in wt.%): 0.12 C, 6.61 Cr, 8.05 Ni,
1.39 Si, 1.93 Mn, 1.18 Mo, and 0.81 V. Due to the occurrence
of strain-induced polymorphic g a transformation under
additional friction treatment this steel may acquire various
structural states, which creates conditions for formation of
high functional properties.
The preliminary treatment of the metal consisted in traditional thermomechanical hardening which included (a) hardening of a wire preform 2.16 mm in diameter for supersaturated g-solid solution (from 1070C), (b ) combined cold
plastic deformation including drawing of the wire to a size of
1.67 mm (40% reduction) and subsequent flattening into a
strip with cross section of 0.42 3.55 mm, and (c) final
strain aging at 470C for 1 h.
Before the aging we conducted additional friction treatment of the flattened strip. Friction loading was performed in
a testing machine with an indenter produced from hard alloy
VK8, which had a cylindrical functional part 6 mm in diameter. In order to eliminate sticking of the indenter to the test
piece we used MS-20 lubricant. The loading pressure was
200 N and the sliding speed was 0.13 m/sec. This mode of
treatment allowed us to avoid friction heating of the material.
The path of the indenter was 75 mm, the number of double
passes (forth and back) was 200.
Both sizes of the treated piece were subjected to such
treatment. Since the diameter of the indenter (6 mm) over-

Ural Federal University in the Name of the First President of Russia B. N. Eltsyn, Ekaterinburg, Russia (e-mail: vrb@mtf.ustu.ru).

473
0026-0673/10/0910-0473 2010 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.

474

TABLE 1. Phase Composition of Steel ZI126

g-phase

a-phase

110
80

0
20

Hardening + deformation with e = 40% +

1-h aging at 470C

84

16

Hardening + deformation with e = 40% +

friction

68

32

Treatment

Hardening from 1070C

Hardening + deformation with e = 40%

Hardening + deformation with e = 40% +

friction + 1-h aging at 470C

70

1 mm

30

lapped the width of the strip (3.5 mm), the indenter was displaced reversibly without cross shifting.
The microhardness of the strip specimens was measured
using a PMT-3 device at a load of 0.5 N. The elastic limit of
the strip with 0.03% tolerance for residual deformation was
determined by the method of pure bending [2].
X-ray phase analysis was performed with the help of a
DRON-2 diffractometer in cobalt Ka radiation. The electron
microscope study of thin foils fabricated from flattened strips
was performed using an EMV-100L electron microscope.
The Bauschinger effect was determined by measuring the
conventional elastic limit under forth and back loading of the
strip and expressed in terms of the value of what is known as
Bauschinger strain. It was computed as the ratio of the difference in the elastic limits in forth and back loading to the
value of the elastic limit in forth loading, i.e., Ds =
s0.03(fl) s0.03(bl) /s0.03(fl) [3].
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 presents the phase composition of the studied
steel as a function of the treatment conditions. It can be seen
that in the hardened state the metal is in a single-phase
austenitic state. Cold deformation (drawing followed by flattening) causes intense development of polymorphic g a
transformation and formation of a noticeable amount of
martensite. In this case the additional friction operation increases the content of strain martensite by a factor of 1.5
and its total fraction can exceed 30%. The final strain aging
at 470C is accompanied by a partial inverse a g transformation.
Figure 1 presents the microstructure of deformed austenitic steel without friction and with friction. The thickness of
the friction-hardened layer attains 10 mm.
The strained austenitic matrix has a quite typical structure with developed fragmentation, high dislocation density,
and strain-induced twins (Fig. 1a). The structure after the
friction treatment (Fig. 1c) is more interesting and is characterized by less manifested crystallographic orientation. The
diffraction pattern exhibits numerous pricks (Fig. 1d ) instead
of typical smeared Debye rings (Fig. 1b ). The pricks may be

1 mm

Fig. 1. Microstructure of austenitic steel ZI126 after strain aging

(a, b ) and additional friction treatment (c, d ): a, c) light-background images; b, d ) microdiffractograms.

deciphered as a feature of formation of a structure of a

nanocrystal scale [4].
This result may be explainable by formation of a complex stress initiated by the friction load. Under the conditions
of sliding friction at a high pressure the shear strain that develops by slip and twinning may be accompanied by rotation
strain. It is assumed [1] that this causes considerable plastic
strain accompanied not only by anomalously high fragmentation of grains but also by their crystallographic rotation
with high-angle off-orientation.
The results of the determination of the elastic limit and
of the microhardness are presented in Table 2. We should
mention the obvious influence of the additional friction treatment of the strip on the growth in these characteristics. This
may also be associated with a change in the phase composition of the steel, i.e., the noticeable growth in the fraction of
strain martensite.
We also give in Table 2 the relative value of Bauschinger
strain that characterizes the Bauschinger effect after a full cycle of thermomechanical treatment (quenching mechanical
hardening aging). The deformation by friction raises the
conventional elastic limit in the case of forward loading but
lowers it in the second deformation in the backward direction. As a result the value of the Bauschinger strain increases.
The data obtained agree well with the available published data that show that in the case of stronger strengthening of a material the Bauschinger effect is more noticeable
[3]. This result may be explained from the standpoint of the
known dislocation models. A treatment ensuring effective

V. P. Baraz et al.

475

TABLE 2. Properties of Steel ZI126 after Different Modes of Treatment

s0.03 ,
MPa

HV,
kgf/mm2

Ds = s0.03(fl)
s0.03(bl) /s0.03(fl) , %

Hardening + deformation with e = 40% + 1-h aging at 470C

1250

245

42

Hardening + deformation with e = 40% + friction + 1-h aging at 470C

1390

310

50

Treatment

Notations: s0.03 ) conventional elastic limit; HV ) microhardness; Ds) Bauschinger strain.

multiplication of dislocations (in our case the additional friction) increases the resistance to microplastic strain in forward loading. Accordingly, the decrease in the shear resistance in the backward loading is manifested stronger.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Surface friction treatment of strip specimens of chromium-nickel austenitic steel ZI126 with unstable g-phase activates the process of strain-induced g a transformation
and yields a structural state characterized by a dimension
close to nanocrystal scale.
2. Such fraction treatment leads to mechanical hardening
of the surface layers and simultaneously intensifies the decrease in the resistance of the steel to repeated loading with
opposite sign (Bauschinger effect).

REFERENCES
1. L. G. Korshunov, A. V. Makarov, and I. L. Chernenko, Nanocrystalline friction structures in steels and alloys, their strength
and tribological properties, in: Development of the Ideas of
V. D. Sadovskii [in Russian], Ekaterinburg (2008), pp. 218 241.
2. V. Ya. Zubov, Determination of conventional elastic limit of
spring ribbon under pure bending, Zavod. Lab., No. 12, 1486
1487 (1949).
3. S. V. Grachev, Heat Treatment and Resistance of Alloys to Repeated Loading [in Russian], Metallurgiya, Moscow (1976),
152 p.
4. S. A. Nikulin, S. V. Dobatkin, V. G. Khanzhin, et al., Effect of
submicrocrystalline structure and inclusions on deformation and
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