Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Shot Peened TI6AL4V Alloys at Different Peening Times

Titanium alloys have been extensively used in biomedical and aerospace applications, where the fatigue life and tribological behaviour are important. Shot peening is a cold working mechanical surface treatment and has been widely used to improve specifically the fatigue life of titanium alloys for the last decades. In this study, the effect of shot peening on the dry sliding wear behaviour of Ti6Al4V alloy was investigated. Moreover, the influences of peening time on the surface topography and the dry sliding wear behaviour of Ti6Al4V alloy were discussed. Ball-on-disc tests were carried out to investigate tribological behaviour and a 3D optical profilometer used to investigate the volume loss, the areal surface roughness, and the 3D surface topographies of shot peened Ti6Al4V alloy before and after wear tests. The areal surface roughness values increased with increasing peening time while dry sliding behaviour did not alter. The 3D surface roughness measurements of the peened and the worn specimens revealed the topographical variations of the specimens.