Study of microstructure, mechanical properties and impact-abrasive wear behavior of medium-carbon steel treated by quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process

In the present work, a high performance martensite-austenite steel was produced by utilizing optimized quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process, and its impact-abrasive wear behavior was investigated in comparison with commercial Hadfield steel (Mn13Cr2) under 2 J and 4 J impact energies. Tensile tests, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were applied to characterize mechanical properties, microstructure evolution, and wear mechanisms of the two steels. Experimental results revealed that the Q&P steel with martensite matrix and retained austenite (RA) had higher strength properties and better impact-abrasive wear resistance than Mn13Cr2. During impact-abrasive wear tests, wear mass loss was less under higher impact energy for both steels, and the Q&P steel owned less wear mass loss than Mn13Cr2. The main strengthening mechanisms were newly formed martensite twins (RA to martensite transformation) and high density dislocations for the Q&P steel, and the interactions of twinning and dislocation structures were for Mn13Cr2, respectively.