Effect of heat treatment on wear behaviour of rolled carbon steel in DOT4 brake fluid

The wear of heat-treated rolled carbon steels (HTRCSs) were performed under dry and wet sliding in DOT4 brake fluid is successfully investigated and reported in the study. The HTRCSs samples were obtained by heating to and soaking the as-rolled carbon steel (ARCS) at 950 °C prior to quenching or cooling in different media at different selected temperatures between (20 and 250 °C) and atmospheric conditions. The microstructures and wear track patterns of specimens were evaluated using SEM and high-resolution metallurgical microscope. The sliding wear behaviour and wear track patterns of the specimens impressed under 10N normal loads and reciprocating mode was used to assess the wear damages. The obtained wear properties were compared in air and DOT4 fluid environments using Anton Paar TRB tribometer. The results obtained showed that enhanced wear behaviours were obtained from the oil and water quenched samples as compared with the air and furnace cooled samples. The HTRCSs samples are more tolerable than as-rolled sample (ARCS) under dry sliding. However, beside the influences of the heat treatments, the lubricating effect of DOT4 is more pronounced in the results. The CoF ranges from 0.105 to 0.137 for wet sliding while higher CoF values (0.378-0.934) were obtained in the dry sliding.