Phase transformations in austenitic stainless steels during low temperature tribological stressing

The tribological behaviour at low temperatures is unknown for many material s even for those widely used in cryogenic engineering. Because of the exten sion of applications of low temperature technologies there is a need for in vestigations in this field. It is the aim to study the stability of the aus tenitic structure of FeCrNi alloys under these harsh conditions. This paper deals with tribological experiments with alloys of different stability of the austenitic structure in the temperature range between room and liquid h elium temperature. It was: found that alloys stable at room temperature sho w martensitic transformation under tribological stressing and decreased ser vice temperature. The obtained transformation behaviour does not exhibit a linear tendency down to liquid helium temperature. A maximum could be state d. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.