Effect of Crystal Orientation on Adhesion Force in Carbon Steels

For the high-performance development of sliding parts, the tribological properties of carbon steel must be improved. In particular, adhesion is an important factor for controlling the tribological properties. However, the dependence of adhesion on crystal orientation has barely been investigated owing to the difficulty in obtaining a single crystal of steel. In this paper, a new analysis method combining electron backscatter diffraction and atomic force microscopy reveals the dependence of adhesion on crystal orientation in carbon steel. The adhesion force was found to increase in the order (100)＜(111)＜(110). In addition, molecular dynamics simulations can reproduce this trend and clarify the factors governing the dependence of adhesion on crystal orientation at the atomic level. The findings of this study can contribute to controlling the tribological properties of carbon steel and understanding the nanoscale phenomenon of mechanical contact.