EFFECT OF COPPER PERCENTAGE

ON THE SLIDINGWEAR BEHAVIOUR OF TiNiCu ALLOY

K.Vamsikrishnaa and A.Satyadevib1
a
M.E.Student b Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

1. INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVE

Titanium Nickel shape memory alloys, due to their excellent combination of low density, high
corrosion resistance and biocompatibility are widely used in the aerospace, automotive, chemical
and biomedical industries. These alloys are well known shape memory alloys, which have great
potential for a large variety of applications. However, main limitation to the use of TiNi alloys is
their poor tribological behavior. For this reason TiNiCu alloy has been developed through TIG
melting process for improving surface properties of TiNi alloy. This alloy is being actively
applied to the development of new energy conversion systems to the design for new robots and
smart material systems. In addition to its shape memory effect Titanium Nickel Copper SMA
also exhibit great resistance to wear.
The aim of the present study is to investigate sliding wear behavior of TiNiCu alloy with varying
the copper content. The wear behavior of the TiNiCu alloys when rubbing against Hardened steel
on “Pin-On-Disc” machine at constant speed of the disc and for different loads on pin is studied.
These tests are carried on three different TiNiCu alloy compositions. The alloy compositions are
presented in Table 1. These alloy compositions are converted in to weight compositions and
using this composition the specimens are prepared on TIG melting machine.

Table 1.Alloy composition selected for the proposed work.

Alloy Ti Ni Cu
At% At% At%
TiNiCu 49.7 44.2 6.1
TiNiCu 49.9 42.5 7.6
TiNiCu 49.5 41.3 9.2

The final compositions selected for the proposed work are presented in Table 2. The wear test is
done on the PIN-ON-DISC machine at constant disc speed 250 rpm and for a time period of 600
seconds for three specimens. Each specimen is tested for three loads. Then the corresponding
losses in the weights due to wear of the three specimens are found.

Table 2: Final composition selected for the proposed work

1
Further author information:
K. Vamsikrishna: E-mail: vamsi.kolli56@gmail.com
A. Satyadevi.: E-mail: a.satyadevi@gmail.com
 Alloy Ti Ni Cu
Wt% Wt% Wt%
Ti Ni Cu-1 4.45 4.83 0.71
Ti Ni Cu-2 4.46 4.61 0.92
Ti Ni Cu-3 4.34 4.49 1.16

2. RESULTS & HIGHLIGHTS OF IMPORTANT POINTS

Using the weight loss from the three specimens the specific wear rates are calculated. From the
results of the specific wear rate it is observed that with increasing the copper percentage the
specific wear rate is decreased, with increasing the load the loss of weight for the specimen
percentage of Cu 0.7 is decreased but the specific wear rate is increased. Similarly for the
percentage of Cu 0.9 & 1.1 the weight loss is increased but the specific wear rate is decreased.
Compared to the alloys with Cu 0.7% and 0.9% alloy with Cu 1.1% specific wear rate is low.
From this observation it can be concluded that with increasing the Cu content the specific wear
rate is decreased due to higher hardness of the alloy. The corrosive resistance is also more.
TiNiCu alloy showed only mild wear for all sliding distances and loads. The duration of
occurrence of the severe wear regime and the wear rate is decreased to TiNiCu with adding the
Cu content. The metallographic characterization was carried out by optical microscope.
Metallographic characterization shows extensive plastic deformation, work hardening and the
formation of oxide layer on TiNiCu alloy in the wear regime. Thus, the results showed that the
TiNiCu exhibits better tribological properties. Table 3, 4&5 show the specific wear rates for the
alloys with percentage of copper 0.7, 0.9 and 1.1.

Table 3: specific wear rates for the percentage of Cu 0.7 for different loads
Load Speed Time Weight loss Sp. Wear Rate
(kg) (rpm) (sec) (g) (m2/N)×10-13
1 250 600 0.019 4.596
2 250 600 0.023 2.782
3 250 600 0.028 2.258

Table 4: specific wear rates for the percentage of Cu 0.9 for different loads
Load Speed Time Weight loss Sp. Wear Rate
(kg) (rpm) (sec) (g) (m2/N)×10-13
1 250 600 0.017 4.113
2 250 600 0.020 2.419
3 250 600 0.025 2.016

Table 5: specific wear rates for the percentage of Cu 1.1 for different loads
Load Speed Time Weight loss Sp. Wear Rate
(kg) (rpm) (sec) (g) (m2/N)×10-13
 1 250 600 0.016 3.976
2 250 600 0.018 2.246
3 250 600 0.021 1.926

Figure 1 show that with increasing the load specific wear rate is decreased for the percentage of
Cu 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9. The wear rate is more in percentage of Cu0.7 and less in percentage of
Cu1.1.

5
4 .5
4 s p .w e a rra te o f
sp.wear rate(10^-
13sq.m/N)

3 .5 c u 0 .7
3
s p .w e a r ra te o f
2 .5
2 c u 0 .9
1 .5 s p .w e a rra te o f
0 1 2 3 4 c u 1 .1

L o a d (k g )

Figure 1: The graph shows the load vs. specific wear rate for the given composition percentages of copper

REFERENCES
1. Development of Shape Memory Alloys, Shuichi Miyazaki and Kazuhiro Otsuka; received on December 19,
1988; accepted January 20, 1989.
2. Recent developments in the research of shape memory alloys, Kazuhiro Otsuka, Xiaobing Ren; received 6
May 1998; accepted 10 June 1998.
3. Ti-Ni shape memory alloys, T.W.Duerig and A.R. pelton, Nitinol Development Corporation.
4. Wear characteristics of Ti Ni shape memory alloys, H.C. Lin, H.M.Liao, J.L.HE, K.C.Chen and K.M.Lin
Received 3 august 2003; accepted 9 september 2003.