Effects of SiC and Al₂O₃ Particles on Micro-abrasion Behavior of Ti-25Nb-3Mo-3Zr-2Sn Alloy

The effects of SiC and Al₂O₃ abrasive particles on micro-abrasion behavior of a biomaterial Ti-25Nb-3Mo-3Zr-2Sn alloy in Hank's solution was investigated. The effects of particle size and type were considered. The specific wear rate, friction coefficient, wear mechanism and the synergistic effect between the micro-abrasion and corrosion were studied. The results show that the specific wear rates increase with increasing of the particle size. Since the hardness and machinability of SiC particle is higher, the material loss caused by the SiC particle is greater than that of the Al₂O₃ particle with the same size. The average friction coefficients obtained in Hank's solution are larger than those in distilled water for the SiC particle; however, the Al₂O₃ particle is just the opposite. For the same particle size, the average friction coefficients acquired by the Al₂O₃ particle is larger than that by the SiC particle. Due to the corrosivity of Hank's solution, the stability of the friction coefficient in Hank's solution is poor compared to that of distilled water. With a decrease of the particle size, the wear mechanism changes from a three-body rolling abrasion to a mixed mode and finally to a two-body grooving abrasion. The mechanistic map of the AC-PA against the PA illustrates that the contribution of corrosion to the total material loss cannot be ignored, and the main regime is abrasion-corrosion.