Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

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Wear
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear

Microstructure evolution and abrasive wear behavior of D2 steel

Kritika Singh, Rajesh K. Khatirkar, Sanjay G. Sapate n
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), South Ambazari Road, Nagpur 440010,
Maharashtra, India

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 28 August 2014
Received in revised form
5 February 2015
Accepted 9 February 2015
Available online 17 February 2015

The effect of heat treatment on microstructure and abrasive wear resistance of AISI D2 steel has been
investigated in the present work. The structural characterization of hardened and multiple tempered
specimens was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer
(EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Two body abrasive wear tests were carried out using silicon carbide
abrasive with systematic and simultaneous variation of test parameters. The abrasive wear volume loss
increased with increasing tempering temperature and increasing severity of test conditions, although
the increase was not proportionate. The worn out surface, wear debris and subsurface damage were
examined using SEM, EDS and XRD. The results of present work were rationalized with respect to
microstructure and operating wear mechanisms as inuenced by severity of wear test conditions.
& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Two body abrasion
Hardness
Steel
Wear testing
Electron microscopy

1. Introduction
High-carbon high-chromium (HCHCr) steels were rst developed as a substitute for high speed (HS) steels, but were found to
be of limited use due to insufcient hot hardness and brittleness.
However, these steels proved useful in applications where high
wear resistance and non-deforming properties were required e.g.
in dies and punches [14]. The high wear resistance in HCHCr
steels is attributed to high volume fraction of hard chromium
carbides [4]. D2 steel nds applications in drawing and forming
dies, cold drawing punches, blanking/stamping dies and extrusion
dies. Die steels are usually subjected to compressive-tensile
stresses, shear stresses and hence die steels require high strength
and toughness apart from good wear resistance [5].
In general, an increase in hardness of material results in an increase
in its wear resistance. This correlation is true only in case of pure
metals in the annealed condition and alloys of same family [6]. The
research investigations in the past have focused on improvement of
the wear resistance mainly by alteration of microstructure by using
conventional heat treatment techniques. The abrasive wear loss has
been reported to decrease with increase in the volume fraction of
martensite. It has also been reported that the hardness of martensite
has a greater inuence on the abrasive wear resistance of steels than
its volume fraction [79]. The martensitic microstructure with carbides
exhibited better wear resistance as compared to bainitic or pearlitic
microstructures [10]. The abrasive wear in steels with multiphase
n

Corresponding author. Tel.: 91 712 2801519; fax: 91 712 2223230.

E-mail addresses: kritikasingh.me@gmail.com (K. Singh),
rajesh.khatirkar@gmail.com, rajeshk@mme.vnit.ac.in (R.K. Khatirkar),
sgsapate@yahoo.com (S.G. Sapate).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2015.02.019
0043-1648/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

microstructure is inuenced by morphology of the carbides, abrasive

particle properties and material properties [1119]. Torkamani et al.
[20] noted that bright hardened samples of D2 steel showed higher
tensile strength, impact toughness and higher hardness in comparison
to oil quenched samples with uniform distribution of ne carbides.
Tang et al. [21] concluded that the dry sliding wear rates of heat
treated D2 steel decreased with the increase in hardness in the sliding
speed range of 0.050.50 m/s. The mode of wear was adhesive for
specimens with hardness 5571 and 6271 HRc, whereas the mode
was abrasive for specimens with hardness 5171 and 5871 HRc. A
comparative study of D2 and O1 tool steels in hardened and double
tempered condition with the same hardness (60 HRc) revealed that
their wear resistance was inuenced by wear mode and mechanism of
material removal under different test conditions [22]. D2 steel
exhibited two times better wear resistance than O1 tool steel, which
was attributed to plate like carbide morphology. The study did not
report the effect of retained austenite on wear behavior of D2 steel. Ma
et al. [23] noted the decrease in mass loss of D2 steel with increase in
sliding speed and applied load which was attributed to fracture of
abrasive particles under the used test conditions. The effect of
cryogenic treatment on abrasive wear resistance of D2 steel has also
been investigated in the past [2427]. The results revealed that
precipitation of secondary carbides and the percentage of retained
austenite after quenching and cryogenic treatment signicantly inuenced the wear behavior under diverse test conditions.
Xu et al. [28] reported that wear resistance was optimum at 30%
volume fraction of retained austenite in high speed steels. At lower
loads, conventionally heat treated samples exhibited better wear
resistance as compared to laser melted specimens, whereas at higher
loads superior wear resistance of laser melted tool steel was attributed
to stress induced transformation of austenite into martensite [29]. In

K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

another study harmful effect of retained austenite on wear resistance

was reported [30]. The abrasive wear data on conventionally heat
treated D2 steel is relatively scarce. Previous studies did not report the
effect of multiple tempering treatment, phase transformations and
retained austenite on abrasive wear of D2 steels. In the present
investigation, the effect of multiple tempering treatment on the
microstructure and two body abrasive wear behavior of D2 steel has
been studied by systematic and simultaneous variation of test parameters. The detailed structural characterization of D2 steel has been
carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mechanism of
material removal has been substantiated by short duration abrasive
wear tests. The results of the present work were rationalized with
respect to hardness, microstructure and operating wear mechanisms.

207

spectrometer (OES) and is given in Table 1. The forged bar was

annealed at 1158 K for 60 min to remove the effect of prior thermomechanical processing history. The specimens for further heat treatment were cut from the annealed bar in the form of cylinder having
length of 25 mm and diameter of 10 mm. The specimens were rst
austenitized at 1303 K for 45 min followed by oil quenching (hardening). The tempering temperature and different tempering cycles
were selected to obtain variations in microstructure; carbide morphology and matrix, surface hardness and retained austenite content. An
attempt is made to correlate abrasive wear of multiple tempered D2
steel with change in mechanism of material removal, associated with
phase transformations during multiple tempering treatments, under
different abrasive wear test conditions.
The hardened specimens were then subjected to multiple tempering treatments. The tempering temperatures selected were 523 K
(designated as T523), 623 K (designated as T623), 723 K (designated

2. Experimental method
2.1. Material and heat treatment
The material used in the present investigation (AISI D2 steel) was
obtained in form of a forged bar of 100 mm diameter. The chemical
Table 1
Chemical composition (weight%) of D2 steel.
Elements

Mn

Si

Cr

Mo

Fe

Wt%

1.5

0.45

0.3

12

0.9

0.03

0.03

1.0

Balance

composition of AISI D2 steel was determined by optical emission

Table 2
Summary of test parameters used for abrasive wear of D2 steel in the present work.
(Constant test parameters: linear velocity 0.8 ms  1 and specimen rotation
50 rpm).
Specimen designation

AN
AN
OQ

T523

T723

T923

Abrasive wear test conditions

Load (N)

SiC particle size (m)

10,20,30 and 40
20 N
10
20
30
40
10
20
30
40
10
20
30
40
10
20
30
40

52
52, 92, 122 and 320
52
92
122
320
52
92
122
320
52
92
122
320
52
92
122
320

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up used for two-body abrasion tests.

Fig. 2. Secondary electron scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the abrasive papers used for the wear tests (a) 80 grit (320 m) (b) 150 grit (122 m) (c) 220 grit
(92 m) and (d) 320 grit (52 m).

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K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

as T723), 823 K (designated as T823) and 923 K (designated as T923).

The annealed and as quenched specimens were designated as AN
and OQ, respectively. The specimens were single tempered, double,
triple, quadruple and ve stages tempered at temperatures 523 K,
623 K, 723 K, 823 K and 923 K respectively, with one tempering cycle
of 60 min each. All the heat treatments were carried out in an inert
atmosphere furnace to avoid oxidation of the specimens. The bulk
hardness of heat treated specimens was measured using Rockwell
hardness tester at 150 kgf load. An average of ve readings is
reported in the results.
2.2. Microstructural characterization

Fig. 3. Effect of tempering temperature on the bulk hardness of D2 steel.

The microstructural examination was carried out for all the

heat treated specimens of D2 steel using SEM (JEOL 6380 A), EDS

Fig. 4. SEM micrographs of heat treated specimens showing size, distribution and morphology of carbides for different conditions (a) annealed at 1158 K (b) as-quenched
after austenitizing at 1303 K (c) quenched and tempered at 523 K (single stage) (d) quenched and tempered at 623 K (two stage) (e) quenched and tempered at 723 K (three
stage) (f) quenched and tempered at 823 K (four stage) (g) quenched and tempered at 923 K (ve stage). All the samples were etched with 2% Nital to reveal the matrix
(dark) followed by etching with Vilella's reagent to reveal the carbides (bright).

K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

(Bruker XFlash) attached to SEM and XRD to study size, distribution and morphology of carbides, to obtain chemical composition
of the carbides and to determine retained austenite content. The
specimens for microstructural observations were prepared using
standard metallographic polishing techniques followed by etching
with 2% Nital and then with Villella's reagent for 10 s each [3132].
XRD patterns were measured using PANalytical Xpert Pro MPD
system with Cu-K radiations and diffracted beam monochromator. The XRD patterns were then analyzed using XPert Highscore
software to obtain type of carbides and retained austenite (RA)
[3334]. For the measurement of RA, {220} and {200} peaks of
austenite and {200} peak of ferrite were considered.
2.3. Abrasive wear tests
Two body abrasive wear tests were carried out on pin-on-plate
abrasive wear test apparatus [35] (DUCOM make, India) as shown in
Fig. 1. The commercially bonded silicon carbides paper with
different particle sizes was used as abrasive media. Fig. 2(ad)
shows secondary electron SEM micrographs of silicon carbide (SiC)
abrasive paper with average particle size of 320 m, 122 m, 92 m
and 52 m used in the present study. The shape of SiC abrasive

209

particles was predominantly angular, although ner particles exhibited relatively greater angularity. The specimens for abrasive wear
tests were in the form of pin (cylindrical shape) with the length
25 mm and diameter of 10 mm. The specimens were metallographically polished prior to each wear test. The objective of simultaneous variation of abrasive particle size and load was to examine
regime of wear i.e. mild, moderate or severe as reected in abrasive
wear loss. The data on the effect of simultaneous variation of test
parameters on abrasive wear of die and tool steel is scarce. The
objective was also to assess the change in mechanism of material
removal from the matrix and the carbides associated with change in
tempering temperature and tempering cycles (single stage to ve
stage) with respect to severity of abrasive wear test conditions. Two
body abrasive wear tests were conducted as per the experimental
conditions mentioned in Table 2. The mass loss was well distributed
over the surface due to rotation of specimen, which also avoids the
possibility of intense wear of the edges. The lateral displacement of
specimen ensures that the specimen always traverses new track.
The specimens were cleaned with ethanol and weighed using
digital micro-balance (to an accuracy of 0.1 mg) prior to and after
each wear test. The difference in the initial and nal weight of
the sample was recorded to calculate abrasive wear loss. Two

Fig. 5. EDS spectrum of as-quenched specimen of D2 steel.

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K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

specimens were tested under similar abrasive wear test conditions

and accordingly the scatter is shown in the test result. The worn out
surfaces and wear debris particles were examined using SEM and
XRD. The short duration wear tests were also carried out with
abrasive particle size of 122 m and at 10 N and 40 N loads for
quenched and tempered at 723 K sample to gain insight into the
mechanism(s) of wear.

Table 3
Chemical composition of primary and secondary carbides (wt%) as determined by
energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS).
As-quenched
Weight %

Primary carbides
Secondary carbides

Fe

Cr

Si

88.25
51.19

11.06
44.67

0.69
0.22

o 0.05
o 0.05

90.54
93.88

8.82
6.21

0.49
0.37

o 0.05
o 0.05

51.83

48.03

0.07

o 0.05

92.58
51.05

8.03
46.84

0.57
0.29

o 0.05
0.11

91.39

8.15

0.46

o 0.05

Quenched and tempered at 523 K

Primary carbides
Coarse secondary
carbides
Fine secondary carbides

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Hardness and microstructures
Fig. 3 shows the effect of tempering temperature on the bulk
hardness of D2 steel samples. The annealed sample exhibited the
lowest hardness ( 19 HRc), whereas as-quenched sample exhibited
the highest hardness ( 65 HRc). It can be observed from Fig. 3 that an
increase in tempering temperature from 523 K to 723 K resulted in
marginal drop of hardness (3 HRc), whereas a sharp decrease in
hardness was observed with the increase in tempering temperature to
923 K ( 35 HRc). This sharp decrease in hardness was attributed to
decomposition of martensite into ferrite and carbides [36] with
increase in tempering temperature. The quenched D2 steel has the
highest hardness due to the formation of martensite, which decreased
with increase in tempering temperature and time. Similar trend of
decrease in hardness with increase in tempering temperature has been
reported by Lee and Su. [37] and Leskovsek et al. [38] for AISI 4340
steel and H11 tool steel respectively as well as other researchers [39].
Fig. 4 shows the secondary electron SEM micrographs of annealed,
quenched and quenched-tempered D2 steel samples. The higher
Table 4
Retained austenite for as-quenched and quench and tempered specimens of
D2 steel.
Condition

Retained austenite
(%)

Quenched and tempered at 923 K

Primary carbides
Coarse secondary
carbides
Fine secondary carbides

As-quenched at 1303 K
17.20
Quenched and tempered at 523 K (single tempered)
17.00
Quenched and tempered at 723 K (three stage
11.82
tempered)
Quenched and tempered at 923 K (ve stage tempered) 6.39

Fig. 6. High resolution indexed X-ray diffraction patterns of (a) as-quenched sample (b) quenched and 523 K tempered sample (single stage) (c) quenched and 723 K
tempered sample (three stage) and (d) quenched and 923 K tempered sample (ve stage).

K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

amount of alloying elements in D2 steel caused a bi-modal distribution

of carbide particles in the annealed condition (Fig. 4a). The coarse
particles were observed to be M7C3 carbides which form during
solidication [4]. The precipitation of carbides in annealed steel is
dependent on the ratio of chromium to carbon. When the ratio is less
than three, the only carbide which forms is the alloyed cementite. If the
ratio is greater than three, chromium carbides (both Cr7C3 and Cr23C6)
are formed. In D2 steels only Cr7C3 has been reported to form
(observed in the present work also) which is usually enriched by Fe
[4]. Fig. 4b shows SEM micrograph of as-quenched specimen showing
un-dissolved carbides as well as small secondary carbides. The
secondary carbides in as-quenched specimen might have formed due
to the very small delay in quenching the samples. In as-quenched
specimen, the martensitic lathes are very ne and cannot be resolved.
Fig. 4cg shows SEM micrographs of hardened and tempered specimens. It can be observed that with increase in tempering temperature
amount of ne secondary carbides increased along with coarsening of
carbides. The carbides as seen from Fig. 4g appear to be relatively
coarser at the maximum tempering temperature of 923 K.
The nature of the primary and secondary carbides precipitated
during tempering was determined by using EDS. Secondary electron
SEM image along with representative EDS spectrum of primary and
secondary carbide is shown in Fig. 5. The chemical composition of
the carbides as determined by EDS is summarized in Table 3. The
primary carbides (bigger Fig. 4b) were rich in Fe and lean in Cr in
the as-quenched condition. The secondary carbides (smaller
Fig. 4b) which might have precipitated due to slight delay in
quenching were having  50% Fe and  35% Cr. After tempering at
523 K, the composition of the primary and secondary carbides
changed only marginally. Although, there was precipitation of new
secondary carbides (other than that precipitated during delay in
quenching referred to as ne secondary carbides). After tempering
at 923 K, the primary and coarse secondary carbides were rich in Fe
and lean in Cr, the coarse secondary carbides had almost 50% Fe and
50% Cr, whereas the ne secondary carbides which precipitated were
very rich in Fe. In chromium containing tool steels, two types of Cr
carbides (Cr7C3 and Cr23C6) are often observed and these are usually
enriched with alloying elements like Fe, Mo etc depending on the
chemical composition of the steel. The precipitation sequence with
increasing tempering temperature in tool steels has been reported
[36] to be M3C-M7C3-M23C6 where M stands for metal atoms. The
transformation of M3C (Fe3C) to M7C3 (Cr7C3) occurs by the nucleation at the Fe3C (M3C)/ferrite interface [4]. The Cr carbide precipitation seems to occur at lower and intermediate tempering
temperatures. At higher tempering temperatures, precipitation of
iron rich carbides indicates the decomposition of martensite into
ferrite and Fe3C, which is slightly enriched with Cr. A similar

211

sequence has been reported for a study on En31 steel [40]. The
XRD patterns of the as-quenched, quenched-tempered 523 K,
quenched-tempered 723 K and quenched-tempered 923 K D2 steel
samples are shown in Fig. 6. The XRD data supplements SEM
observations on microstructural changes associated with multiple
tempering treatment of D2 steel. The as-quenched D2 sample
showed the presence of martensite (indexed as ferrite, since the
resolution of the diffractomter was not sufcient to resolve the
tetragonality of the martensite), alloyed cementite (indexed as Fe3C),

Fig. 8. Abrasive wear volume loss (cm3) vs. simultaneous variation of load and
abrasive particle size at a velocity of 0.8 m/s and rpm of 50.

Fig. 9. Variation of abrasive wear volume loss (cm3) as a function of hardness (HRc)
at a load of 10 N and 40 N.

Fig. 7. (a) Abrasive wear volume loss (cm3) as a function of load for annealed specimen for abrasive particle size of 52 m. (b) Abrasive wear volume loss (cm3) as a function
of abrasive particle size for annealed samples at a load of 20 N and at a velocity of 0.8 cm/s and at 50 rpm.

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K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

RA and M7C3 (indexed as Cr7C3). After tempering at 523 K and 723 K,

the primary chromium carbides (Cr7C3) persisted along with alloy
cementite and RA, although their proportion varied (as indicated
relatively by the peak intensities). At the highest tempering temperature of 923 K, the XRD pattern showed very weak vanadium
carbide (V8C7) peak. The variation of RA with tempering temperature
is given in Table 4. There was almost no change in RA after tempering
at 523 K which gradually decreased with increase in the tempering
temperature. Even after ve stages of tempering at 923 K, the RA
content was not zero. The diffraction peaks (martensite, indexed as
ferrite) are also much broader in the as-quenched D2 steel sample.
The martensitic structure is always associated with large dislocation
density in the structure. The broadening of X-ray peak proles is

related to size of the crystallites and/or micro-strain present in the

sample. Reduction in the size of the crystallites/coherently diffracting
domains and increase in the micro-strain lead to the broadening of
the peak proles. The presence of dislocations in the structure
induces micro-strains, which results in the broadening of the
diffraction peaks [40,41]. After tempering at 523 K, 723 K and
923 K, the broadening reduced due to reduction in the dislocation
density as well as decomposition of martensite into ferrite.
3.2. Two body abrasive wear testing
Fig. 7a shows the variation of abrasive wear volume loss with
load for annealed D2 steel. The abrasive wear volume loss

Fig. 10. (a,b): SEM micrographs of worn out surface of quenched and tempered specimens of D2 steel at a load of 40 N. (a) tempered at 723 K (triple tempering) and (b) ve
stage tempered at 923 K.

Fig. 11. (a,b): SEM micrographs of heat treated D2 steel after short duration abrasive wear test for quenched and tempered sample at 723 K (a) 10 N (b) 40 N. (c,d ): Subsurface SEM micrographs of worn out samples at 40 N load (a) as-quenched, (b) quenched and tempered at 523 K (single stage).

K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

increased linearly and the volume loss at highest load (40 N) was
approximately two times as compared to that observed at the
lowest load (10 N).The abrasive wear volume loss increased with
the increase in the particle size as shown in Fig. 7b. With the
increase in particle size from  52 m to  122m, the increase in
the volume loss was approximately 1.6 times, whereas for increase
in particle size from 122 m to 320 m, the increase was only
marginal. These results can be understood in terms of particle size
effect, which can be attributed to clogging, adhesion of wear
debris to the tip of abrasive particle thus reducing its cutting
efciency, fracture of abrasive particles and increase in local ow
stress with decreasing scale of deformation for ner abrasive
particles leading to reduced wear loss [6,42,43]. In the annealed
condition, the matrix is very soft and the increase in load is
expected to result in higher depth of cut resulting in material
removal proportional to the applied normal load. SiC particles
have higher hardness as compared to the Cr7C3 carbides and hence
are expected to cause indentation and fracture of the carbides
since ratio of Ha/Hs ( ratio of hardness of abrasive to that of
carbide) was greater than 1.2 [6]. Fig. 8 shows the effect of
simultaneous variation of load and particle size of abrasive on
abrasive wear volume of heat treated D2 steel. The data points
were tted by best t line and regression coefcients were in the
range of 0.930.95. It can be observed that with the increase in
severity of wear condition from (10 N, 52 mm) to (40 N, 320 mm)
abrasive wear volume loss increased for D2 steel irrespective of
the heat treatment condition. The abrasive wear volume loss

213

increased more than two times for specimens tempered at 923 K

whereas as quenched specimen exhibited an increase of nearly
1.25 times with increase in severity of test condition ( from 10 N,
52 mm to 40 N, 320 mm ). It can also be observed that specimen
tempered at 923 K exhibited nearly 2.4 times more abrasive wear
volume loss at a load of 40 N and particle size of 320 mm as
compared to oil quenched specimen whereas this increase was not
more than 1.6 times at a load of 10 N and particles size of 52 mm.
As-quenched specimen exhibited relatively higher volume
fraction of retained austenite, as shown in Table 4, which was
nearly three times as compared to specimen tempered at 923 K as
a result of multiple tempering treatment, whereas no signicant
difference was observed for specimen tempered at 523 K. The
relatively lower abrasive wear loss exhibited by as-quenched
specimen can be attributed to ner morphology of carbides,
martensitic microstructure and stress induced transformation of
austenite to martensite during abrasive wear. At higher tempering
temperature the contribution of retained austenite in reduction of
abrasive wear loss associated with stress induced transformation
was relatively insignicant due to its lower percentage. Fig. 9
shows abrasive wear volume loss plotted vs bulk hardness of D2
steel at 10 N and 40 N loads. The data points were tted by power
law relationship and the dependence of volume loss (V) on
hardness (H) was expressed by the power law equation:

V KHm

Fig. 12. SEM micrographs of wear debris of (a) and (b) as-quenched samples, (c) and (d) quenched and 523 K tempered samples (single stage), (e) and (f) quenched and
923 K tempered samples (ve stage). For (a), (c) and (e) the load used was 10 N, while for (b), (d) and (f), the load used was 40 N.

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K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

where V volume loss, H bulk hardness, K constant and m

hardness exponent. It was observed that only a marginal difference was observed on the dependence of abrasive wear volume
loss on hardness as revealed by the hardness exponents (0.69 and
0.66 at a load of 10 N and 40 N, respectively). As expected, the
wear volume loss was greater at a load of 40 N as compared to
10 N. The increase in volume loss can be attributed to the
structural transformations that occurred during heat treatment
and due to the greater depth of cut by coarse particles at higher
loads. These observations are consistent with previous studies by
Moore [44] and Ueda et al. [45]. It also suggests that the factors
other than hardness, e.g. microstructure and morphology of
carbides are expected to exhibit considerable inuence on abrasive
wear volume loss of D2 steel. Hence SEM and XRD studies of worn
out surfaces and wear debris particles were focused to substantiate the results of the wear tests.
Fig. 10 (a and b) shows abraded surfaces for quenched and
tempered samples at 723 K and 923 K respectively. As the tempering
temperature increased, the abrasion resistance reduced due to the
coarsening of carbides coupled with decomposition of martensite [36].
With increase in tempering temperature the softer matrix was easily
plowed and cut by the abrasive particles as compared to specimens
tempered at lower temperatures [6,40,41,46]. The material from the
matrix was removed by the process of micro cutting, plowing and
delamination as shown in Fig.10 (a and b), whereas indentation and
gross fracture and carbide pull out was observed at higher load and
coarser particle size (40 N load and 320 m particle size). With ner
abrasive particles, the contact zone size was relatively small and only
small scale chipping of carbides was observed resulting in relatively
lower abrasive wear volume loss under these conditions. Fig. 11 shows
SEM micrographs of quenched and tempered (723 K) D2 steel sample

after short duration abrasion test at a load of 10 N and 40 N

respectively. Fig. 11(a) shows material removal from the matrix by
plowing and some of the ner carbides carried with plowed material
also can be seen at the center of the image. Fig. 11(b) shows SEM
photograph at a load of 40 N. The important mechanisms of material
removal from the carbides were observed to be large scale chipping,
edge fracture and gross fracture of carbides shown in the SEM
photographs. As the matrix is worn out by the process of plowing/
micro cutting, it offers reduced support to the carbide particles leading
to carbide pull out resulting in increased abrasive wear volume loss at
higher load and coarser particle size. [47].This is also evident from
Fig. 11 (c and d) which shows sub-surface morphology of worn out
specimens as-quenched and quenched-523 K tempered specimens.
Fig. 12 shows the SEM micrographs of wear debris of as-quenched,
quenched and tempered 523 K sample and quenched and tempered
923 K sample at load of 10 N and 40 N. Fig. 12(a, c and e) shows wear
debris at load of 10 N and SiC particle size of 52 m whereas Fig. 12(b,
d and f) shows wear debris at load of 40 N with particle size of
320 m. Fig. 13 shows the XRD patterns of wear debris of asquenched, quenched- 523 K, quenched-723 K and quenched-923 K
tempered specimens at 40 N load and 320 m SiC particle size. The
wear debris particles consisted of fractured SiC abrasive particles,
carbide particles removed by the process of fracture and carbides
removed by pull out (Mo2C, Cr7C3 and Fe3C) along with ferrite and
martensite matrix removed by the process of cutting as shown in
Fig. 12.These observations were conrmed by XRD patterns of wear
debris particles at a load of 40 N and 320 m SiC particle size (Fig. 13
(ad)). It can also be observed from Fig. 13 that at a load of 10 N the
fragmented and fractured SiC carbides were relatively ner as
compared to that at higher load of 40 N. XRD patterns in Fig. 13 also
indicated presence of iron oxide (Fe2O3) peaks with signicant

Fig. 13. High resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of wear debris of D2 steel for (a) as-quenched (b) quenched and 523 K tempered (single stage) (c) quenched and
723 K tempered (three stage) and (d) quenched and 923 K tempered (ve stage) samples at a load of 40 N.

K. Singh et al. / Wear 328-329 (2015) 206216

intensity for all the heat treated conditions which implied that the
wear mechanism was oxidative. The iron oxide lm provides a
lubricating lm with low shear strength reducing the friction between
surface and abrasive particles subsequently subsiding the effects of
capping and clogging [6]. At higher load and coarser particle size, iron
oxide lm is penetrated by abrasive particles with exposure to fresh
metal surface with increased wear loss. There was no formation of
white layer for very high loads for D2 steel as reported in a previous
study [25]. The above observations also indicate that D2 steel is
relatively more abrasive wear resistant under mild to moderate
abrasive wear conditions. From the above it can be concluded that a
combination of wear mechanisms was responsible for material
removal and the relative contribution of each (e.g. Plowing, microcutting, edge fracture, chipping, gross fracture of carbides, carbide pull
out) was decided by structural transformations associated with
tempering treatment and morphology of carbides. This can explain
the abrasive wear loss trends obtained in the present investigation
with increase in tempering temperature and with change in abrasive
wear test conditions from benign to relatively severe one. From the
results of the present investigation, it can be also pointed out that it is
difcult to pin point the effect of retained austenite (617%) in heat
treated D2 steel on the improvement of abrasive wear resistance. This
is further supported by the observation that abrasive wear volume
loss of heat treated D2 steel showed nearly similar dependence on
surface hardness at both lower and higher loads as indicated by the
hardness exponents. In fact, the contribution of change in mechanism
of material removal to abrasive wear resistance of D2 steel with
increasing severity of abrasive wear test conditions was more
signicant as compared to the effect of retained austenite. It is
difcult to compare the results of the present work with those of
previous studies due to different processing conditions, mode of wear,
conguration of the test apparatus and the test conditions, as far as
the effect of retained austenite on abrasive wear resistance is
concerned [28,47].

4. Conclusions
1. The morphology of carbides became coarser with increasing tempering temperature during multiple tempering treatment of D2 steel.
2. D2 steel in the as-quenched condition exhibited highest abrasive wear resistance which was attributed to martensitic
microstructure with ner morphology of carbides.
3. The simultaneous variation of load and abrasive particle size
increased abrasive wear volume loss with increasing temperature.
4. The dependence of abrasive wear resistance of heat treated D2
steel on hardness was almost similar irrespective of the load.
5. The relatively higher abrasives wear rate exhibited by multiple
tempered D2 steel at higher tempering temperature was due to
softer matrix and coarser morphology of carbides.
6. The abrasive wear resistance of tempered D2 steels was
predominantly inuenced by morphology of the carbides,
nature of the matrix and the change in mechanism of material
removal from benign to relatively severe test conditions. The
retained austenite had relatively minor effect on abrasive wear
behavior of heat treated D2 steel.

Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Director, VNIT Nagpur for providing
necessary facilities in carrying out this investigation. The authors
are also thankful to Mr. S. L. Gadge and Mr. Avishkar Rathod for
their help during heat treatment and SEM work.

215

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