Analysis of the Effect of The Wearing Type on Surface Structural Changes of Ni 3 Al-based Intermetallic Alloy Dariusz ZASADA 1,a , Wojciech POLKOWSKI 1,b , Robert JASIONOWSKI 2,c * 1 Department of Advanced Materials and Technologies, Faculty of Advanced Technologies and Chemistry, Military University of Technology, Gen. S. Kaliskiego 2 St., 00-908 Warsaw, Poland 2 Institute of Basic Technical Sciences, Maritime University of Szczecin, 70-506 Szczecin, 51-53 Podgórna Str., Poland a dzasada@wat.edu.pl, b wpolkowski@wat.edu.pl, c r.jasionowski@am.szczecin.pl Keywords: intermetallic alloy, tribological wearing, cavitation Abstract Results of an analysis of effect of wearing type on surface structural changes of a Ni 3 Al intermetallic alloy, are shown in the present paper. A microstructure evaluation was carried out by Quanta 3D FEG field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEG SEM) equipped with an integrated EDS/WDS/EBSD system. The Ni 3 Al-based intermetallic alloy with an addition of boron, zirconium and chromium was examined. The investigated material had γ’ single-phase, ordered solid solution structure with 20 µm grain size. An electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) method was applied to visualize surface structural changes upon an abrasive, a cavitational and a tribological wearing of the material. An observation of surface layer after the abrasive wear was carried out on samples examined in loose abradant by T-07 tester and according to GOST 23.2008-79 norm. An analysis of cavitational wear on changes in the near surface area of Ni 3 Al-based alloy was performed on an impact-jet stand. Observed structural changes were described based on results of the SEM/EBSD complex structural examination and hardness measurements. It was found, that the EBSD is an effective and sensitive method that allows estimating surface strain introduced during analyzed wearing types. Introduction An assessment of the surface layer state is extremely important from the point of view of reliability and durability of components of plant and machinery. This is mainly due to the fact that the process of destruction generated by an erosion, a corrosion or a friction, generally takes place in near surface layer area. There are several methods allowing visualization of the surface layer microstructure - and partly on the basis of these observations - determination of technological properties of the analyzed layer. Thus, searching for ways and means to describe, as fully as possible, the microstructure of the surface layer is a still a major problem. Method that may meet such requirements is electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), which e.g. allows illustrating the arrangement of the orientation in micro-volumes of material (the topography of the orientation), un automated quantitative stereological structure description or connecting observed microstructure changes with operating conditions. Thus, the EBSD technique is an excellent characterization tool of the microstructure or the microtexture of a material. The continuous development of automated measurement methods and so the possibility of measuring large sets of individual orientations using the EBSD enables the development of a new field of electron microscopy called Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) [1]. Using the OIM technique can provide a lot of information on the crystallographic structure of material, such as grain size, its orientation, shape, type of grain boundaries, as well as a fraction and a distribution of misorientation angles. Actually, this technique has been widely used to [2-4]: a texture analysis in the steel and aluminum industry for a quality control and an improvement of the surface treatment, an Solid State Phenomena Vol. 225 (2015) pp 25-32 Submitted: 24.10.2014 Online available since 2014/Dec/31 at www.scientific.net Revised: 06.11.2014 © (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Accepted: 11.11.2014 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.225.25 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 193.105.35.161-15/01/15,07:45:12)