Wear and corrosion behaviour of AISI 310 and AISI 316 stainless steels in synthetic mine water

The synergistic effects of chloride and sulphate ions on friction, wear and pitting corrosion of AISI 310 and AISI 316 have been investigated using electrochemical methods and a tribometer. The results show that increasing the sulphate concentration in synthetic mine water mitigates the detrimental effects of chloride ions on both the general corrosion rate and pitting potentials of both materials. The E_corr shifted to more positive values as the sulphate-to-chloride ratio increased in the electrolyte. The AISI 316 is more resistant to wear than the AISI 310 both in dry and wet unidirectional sliding conditions. Whereas the wear mechanism under the dry condition is mainly adhesive, there was transition from abrasive wear to adhesive wear under the wet sliding condition as the sulphate concentration increased in both materials.