Room temperature indentation creep behaviour of different regions of nitrocarburised AISI 4140 steel is investigated by employing the nanoindentation creep testing method in the present study. A structure consisting of a compound layer, a diffusion layer and a substrate is observed in the nitrocarburised AISI 4140 steel. The stress exponents are calculated from the loading curve produced by nanoindentation during the holding time. The results indicate that with the increase in distance from the material surface, the obtained stress exponent decrease. From the compound layer to the diffusion layer to the substrate, the stress exponent decreases rapidly first, and then decreases gradually revealing a deeper test point that yields a lower creep resistance. The correlations between the room temperature creep behaviour and the corresponding microstructure of nitrocarburising surface are discussed.
LarischB, BruskyU, SpiesHJ.Plasma nitriding of stainless steels at low temperatures. Surf Coat Technol. 1999;205:116–119. doi:10.1016/S0257-8972(99)00084-5.
2.
MalinovaT, MalinovS, PantevN.Simulation of microhardness profiles for nitrocarburized surface layers by artificial neural network. Surf Coat Technol. 2001;135(2):258–267. doi:10.1016/S0257-8972(00)00991-9.
3.
KarakanM, AlsaranA, ÇelikA.Effect of process time on structural and tribological properties of ferritic plasma nitrocarburized AISI 4140 steel. Mater Des. 2004;25(4):349–353. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2003.10.017.
4.
LeeI.Plasma post oxidation of nitrocarburized AISI 4140 steel. Rare Met. 2006;25:267–271. doi:10.1016/S1001-0521(08)60095-9.
5.
FattahM, MahboubiM.Microstructure characterization and corrosion properties of nitrocarburized AISI 4140 low alloy steel. J Mater Eng Perform. 2012;21:548–552. doi:10.1007/s11665-011-9922-3.
6.
LiuC, LiuP, ZhaoZB, Room temperature creep of high strength steel. J Mater Des. 2001;22(4):325–328. doi:10.1016/S0261-3069(00)00074-1.
7.
NieDF, ZhaoJ, MoT, Room temperature creep and its effect on flow stress in a X70 pipeline steel. Mater Lett. 2008;62:51–53. doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2007.04.068.
8.
DasCR, AlbertSK, BhaduriAK, Understanding room temperature deformation behavior through indentation studies on modified 9Cr–1Mo steel weldments. Mater Sci Eng A. 2012;552:419–426. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2012.05.064.
9.
Ghassemi-ArmakiH, MaaR, BhatSP, Deformation response of ferrite and martensite in a dual-phase steel. Acta Mater. 2014;62:197–211. doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2013.10.001.
10.
ZhuXY, LiuXJ, ZengF, Room temperature nanoindentation creep of nanoscale Ag/Fe multilayers. J Mater Lett. 2010;64(1):53–56. doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2009.10.003.
11.
DeanJ, BradburyA, Aldrich-SmithG, A procedure for extracting primary and secondary creep parameters from nanoindentation data. Mech Mater. 2013;65(20):124–134. doi:10.1016/j.mechmat.2013.05.014.
12.
HuangZ, AbadMD, RamseyJK, A high temperature mechanical study on PH 13-8 Mo maraging steel. Mater Sci Eng A. 2016;651:574–582. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2015.10.077.
13.
KimSI, ByonSM, SeoSW, Constitutive equation for AISI4140 steel applicable to a wide range of strain rates at elevated temperatures. J Steel Res Int. 2006;77(5):355–360. doi:10.1002/srin.200606398.
14.
ÇelikA, KaradenizS.Improvement of the fatigue strength of AISI 4140 steel by an ion nitriding process. Surf Coat Technol. 1995;72(3):169–173. doi:10.1016/0257-8972(94)02348-4.
15.
LimodinN, VerremanY, TarfaTN.Axial fatigue of a gas-nitrided quenched and tempered AISI 4140 steel: effect of nitriding depth. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 2003;26:811–820. doi:10.1046/j.1460-2695.2003.00682.x.
16.
LiuH, LiJC, SunF, Characterization and effect of pre-oxidation on D.C. plasma nitriding for AISI4140 steel. Vacuum. 2014;109(42):170–174. doi:10.1016/j.vacuum.2014.07.017.
17.
LucasBN, OliverWC.Indentation power-law creep of high-purity indium. Metall Mater Trans A. 1999;30(3):601–610. doi:10.1007/s11661-999-0051-7.
18.
MayoMJ, NixWD.A micro-indentation study of superplasticity in Pb, Sn, and Sn-38- wt-percent-Pb. Acta Metall. 1988;36(8):2183–2192. doi:10.1016/0001-6160(88)90319-7.
19.
FátayD, GubiczaJ, SzommerP, Thermal stability and mechanical properties of a Zr-based bulk amorphous alloy. Mater Sci Eng A. 2004;387–389(1):1001–1004. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2004.01.088.
LeeI.Post-oxidizing treatments of the compound layer on the AISI 4135 steel produced by plasma nitrocarburizing. Surf Coat Technol. 2004;188–189(1):669–674. doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2004.07.093.
22.
FattahM, MahboubiF.Comparison of ferritic and austenitic plasma nitriding and nitrocarburizingbehavior of AISI 4140 low alloy steel. Mater Des. 2010;31(8):3915–3921. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2010.03.008.
23.
PrietoG, BakoglidisKD, TuckartWR, Nanotribological behaviour of deep cryogenically treated martensitic stainless steel. Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2017;8(1):1760–1768. doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.177.
24.
KaurN, KaurD.Room temperature nanoindentation creep of nanograined NiTiW shape memory alloy thin films. Surf Coat Technol. 2014;260:260–265. doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2014.07.090.
25.
MalyginGA.Strength and plasticity of nanocrystalline materials and nanosized crystals. Phys Usp. 2011;54(11):1091. doi:10.3367/UFNe.0181.201111a.1129.
26.
PanfilD, KulkaM, WachP, Nanomechanical properties of iron nitrides produced on 42CrMo4 steel by controlled gas nitriding and laser heat treatment. J Alloys Compd. 2017;706:63–75. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.02.220.
27.
KrishnarajN, Bala SrinivasanP, IyerJLK, Optimization of compound layer thickness for wear resistance of nitrocarburized H 11 steels. Wear. 1998;215:123–130. doi:10.1016/S0043-1648(97)00276-7.
28.
RatajskiJ, TacikowskiJ, SomersMAJ.Development of compound layer of iron (carbo) nitrides during nitriding of steel. Surf Eng. 2003;19(4):285–291. doi:10.1179/026708403322499218.
29.
ChenYH, HuangJC, WangL, Effect of residual stresses on nanoindentation creep behavior of Zr-based bulk metallic glasses. Intermetallics. 2013;41(10):58–62. doi:10.1016/j.intermet.2013.05.001.
30.
TobolaD, KaniaB.Phase composition and stress state in the surface layers of burnished and gas nitrided Sverker 21 and Vanadis 6 tool steels. Surf Coat Technol. 2018;353:105–115. doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2018.08.055.
