Tribo-Corrosion Map of K4169 Alloy in Artificial Seawater

In this study, the tribo-corrosion behavior of K4169 nickel-based alloy in sliding against an Al2O3 ceramic ball in artificial seawater was investigated using an potentiostatic method in applied loads of 5 N to 20 N and potentials from –0.6 V to 0.3 V. And wastage map, wear mechanism map and synergistic map of K4169 alloy were plotted according to the experimental data. The calculated corrosion rate of K4169 alloy was as low as 0.004 2 mm/a, indicating the alloy had good corrosion resistance in artificial seawater at room temperature. According to the wastage map, the total material loss rate of K4169 alloy was contributed by wear loss because the ratio of wear loss rate to total material loss rate ranged from 87.1% to 96.8%. Corrosion loss had very limited impact on the total material loss. Two wear regimes, i.e. abrasion regime at higher load and abrasion-corrosion at lower load, were observed. Using ΔC_w/ΔW_c as the criteria, composite effects, i.e. synergistic effect, additive effect and antagonistic effect, were identified in the tribocorrosion process.