Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Tribology Letters (2018) 66:109 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-018-1064-4 ORIGINAL PAPER Deformation, Wear and Microstructural Evolution of Nano-structured Pearlite Under Repeated Contact Sliding Kushal Mishra 1  · Abhishek Pachauri 1  · Aparna Singh 1 Received: 7 June 2018 / Accepted: 24 July 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Refnement of lamellar spacing down to a few nano-meters in pearlitic steels ofers a unique combination of high strength and toughness. The present work pertains to the tribological response of nano-structured pearlitic steels with varying lamel- lae spacing under repeated frictional sliding using a conical diamond tip. The wear response has been quantifed through the friction, volume of groove formed by the indenter and deformation-induced structural changes with number of passes of sliding. Results indicate that the initial microstructure and mechanical properties have a profound impact on the wear resistance since these factors also govern the microstructural adaptability under repeated sliding. The fnest lamellar spacing pearlite shows the least wear volume, lowest friction coefcient and the smallest deformation-afected zone. Graphical Abstract Keywords Sliding · Nano-indentation · Wear · Friction · Steel · Nano-pearlite 1 Introduction The refnement of interlamellar spacing in pearlitic steels has been a traditional way of enhancing yield stress, work hardening rate and fracture toughness [1–7]. Pearlite with interlamellar spacing as fne as a few tens of nano-meter has been achieved by enhancing the driving force available for transformation from the parent austenite to the product * Aparna Singh aparna_s@iitb.ac.in 1 Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India