Experimental Investigation on Fretting Wear Behavior of Additively Manufactured Inconel 718.

This study investigates the fretting wear resistance of Inconel 718 fabricated by laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) based additive manufacturing (AM) process. A set of the L-PBF processed coupons were subjected to homogenization followed by double aging heat treatment cycles to achieve hardness comparable to wrought material. Material characterization using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction techniques revealed a fine grained and textured microstructure in AM as-built samples. Point contact (ball-on-flat) fretting wear tests conducted under ambient conditions showed that AM as-built samples had the least wear resistance with a wear coefficient of 15.64 × 10⁻⁹ MPa⁻¹ and a higher average coefficient of friction (COF) of 0.75. The wear resistance of the AM samples was found to be improved after heat treatment with the reduced wear coefficient of 10.35 × 10⁻⁹ MPa⁻¹ and COF ranged between 0.60 and 0.70. The fretting loops, COF plots and SEM analysis on worn surfaces show that when the applied normal load is low (1N), the operating regime is gross slip regime and the corresponding wear damage is abrasion for all samples. When the load increases to high level (3N), a combined wear mechanism of delamination, adhesion and abrasive wear operating under partial slip regime is predominant with a considerable amount of subsurface cracking. The effect of heat treatment is seen as beneficial in terms of reduction in wear, COF and sub-surface crack which is attributed to improved hardness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]