# The Effect of Different Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment Time on the Fretting Wear Properties of TC4 Alloy in Artificial Seawater

## TL;DR

This paper studies how different treatment times affect the wear resistance of a titanium alloy used in aerospace and marine applications.

## Contribution

The study reveals how varying surface mechanical attrition treatment times optimizes the fretting wear resistance of TC4 alloy in artificial seawater.

## Key findings

- SMAT increases surface roughness, hardness, and stress while decreasing grain size with longer treatment times.
- After 240 min of SMAT, TC4 alloy shows a 32.8% reduction in wear depth and 48% reduction in wear volume and rate compared to untreated samples.

## Abstract

The TC4 alloy is widely used in aerospace and marine engineering due to its excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, titanium alloys often face fretting wear problems during use, which affect their long-term stability and service life. This study investigates the effects of surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) time on the surface morphology, microstructure, stress distribution, and fretting wear properties of TC4 alloy. Characterization was performed using white light interferometry, EBSD, SEM, XRD, and microhardness measurements. The results show that SMAT significantly changes the surface and wear properties of TC4 alloy. With the increase in SMAT time from 0 to 240 min, the surface roughness (Ra), hardness, deformation depth, and stress gradually increase while the grain size decreases. After 240 min of SMAT, the TC4 alloy exhibited optimal fretting wear resistance, achieving a wear depth of 14.27 μm, a wear volume of 2.48 × 106 μm3, and a wear rate of 1.24 × 103 μm3/s. This represents a significant improvement, corresponding to an approximate 32.8% reduction in wear depth and a ~48% reduction in both wear volume and wear rate compared to the untreated sample.