Failure Behavior of Cemented Carbide under Impact-Sliding Wear Conditions

Abstract

A wear test set-up is designed and employed to investigate the damage behavior and failure mechanisms of cemented carbide against Si₃N₄ ceramic under impact-sliding wear conditions to understand the damage trend of cutting tools under complex relative motions. The wear profile, damage morphology, and chemical components of the cemented carbide are analyzed for different number of test cycles. The results demonstrate that the damage type of the cemented carbide under impact-sliding wear conditions is primarily delamination of the impact area, whereas the damage of the sliding zone is negligible. The damage characteristics of impact-sliding wear of cemented carbide do not change significantly with an increase in the number of cycles, but the wear rate decreases. Oxidative wear is observed in the impact area, producing black wear debris consisting of WO₃. The failure of the cemented carbide under impact-sliding wear conditions is primarily mainly caused by delamination induced by fatigue wear, as well as oxidative wear.

Fig. 1 (a) Schematic of the impact-sliding wear test device and (b) typical force curve of one cycle of the impact-sliding wear test.