The tribocorrosion behaviors of Hastelloy C276 alloy in seawater

Purpose – The aim of this work is to study the tribocorrosion behaviors of Hastelloy C276 alloy sliding against AISI 316 stainless steel in artificial seawater and distilled water. Design/methodology/approach – The electrochemical behaviors of Hastelloy C276 alloy are measured by potentiodynamic polarization method. The tribocorrosion properties are evaluated using an MRH-03 type ring-on-block test rig in artificial seawater with different salinity. The wear loss is determined by the difference of sample weight before and after tribocorrosion tests. Findings – The results show that the typical passivation behavior is observed for C276 alloy in seawater. The Hastelloy C276 alloy has the maximum corrosion current density in 3 percent seawater, which is the synergism of salt concentration and dissolved oxygen in seawater. Friction coefficients are in general larger in distilled water compared with seawater. The wear loss in seawater is always higher than that in distilled water for both alloys. Seawater could reduce the friction coefficient and the wear resistance. Originality/value – Many scientists focused on studying the friction behavior of passive metals sliding against alumina or zirconia, which was considered to act as inert antagonist in the experiments. However, there are few papers available on the tribocorrosion properties of passive metals sliding each other in corrosion mediums.