Tribological and microstructure evaluation of 17Cr ferritic ODS steel fabricated through vacuum hot pressing

• Ferritic ODS steel powders (430L + 0.3 wt% Y 2 O 3 + 0.5 wt% ZrO 2 + 0.1 wt% Ti) were developed through mechanical alloying using high-energy planetary ball milling. • Mechanically alloyed powders were characterized using XRD and TEM analysis. • Consolidation of the mechanically alloyed powders was carried out via vacuum hot pressing. • Vacuum hot-pressed samples were characterized using optical microscopy and TEM-EDS analysis. • Wear tests were conducted on the vacuum hot-pressed samples using a pin-on-disc wear testing machine. The wear behavior of high performance 17Cr Ferritic steel is crucial for their successful implementation in various industrial high temperature applications such as nuclear cladding tube, aerospace, engine exhaust chambers etc. This study focuses on the wear behavior analysis of 17Cr Ferritic Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) steel fabricated through the vacuum hot pressing (VHP) route. The wear resistance of the ODS steel is evaluated under different operating conditions, different sliding distance (500 m,1000 m &1500 m) and constant applied load followed by pin on disc wear testing. Comparisons are made with base material 430L ferritic steel(Sample 1) and Ferritic ODS steel (430L + 0.3Y 2 O 3 + 0.5ZrO 2 + 0.1Ti)wt% Sample 2 to compute the potential benefits of the ODS steel in terms of the density, hardness, microstructures and wear characteristics. It was observed that Ferritic ODS steel(Sample 2) shows better wear resistance than the base material (sample 1).