3.1. Microstructure
The XRD patterns of the untreated sample and LSP-treated samples are shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the Ti-6Al-4V sample is composed of the α phase with HCP structure and the β phase with BCC structure. The α phase shows a multi-angle diffraction peak, but the β phase in the (110) direction does not show an obvious diffraction peak. After the LSP process, it is found that the diffraction peak of the α phase is weakened and some diffraction peaks are widened. There is no new phase generated, which indicates that no phase change occurs during the LSP process. This is because the thermal effect of the LSP is lower than the phase transition temperature of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy.
The surface microstructures of the untreated sample and LSP-treated samples are shown in Fig. 4. As can be seen in Fig. 4(a), the phase structure distribution on the surface is relatively uniform. After the LSP treatment, the phase structures become larger, which may be due to the transformation and connection between the phase structures. However, according to the EDS element map, there is less difference in the distribution of elements after the LSP treatment.
Fig. 5 shows the cross-sectional microstructures of untreated sample and LSP-treated samples. As can be seen from Fig. 5(a), the light gray α phase shows a large area of a continuous distribution mixed with the bright white strip β phases. The volume fraction of the β phase is small and dispersed throughout the matrix. In the meantime, the distribution of the β phase presents to be directional, which is caused by the hot rolling process. After the LSP process, the β phase is refined which changes from slender strips to short rods and granules as shown in Fig. 5(b)-(d). In Fig. 5(c)-(d), it can be seen that some tissue structures show a wide range of banded connection characteristics. Sun et al. [32] reported that there are high-density dislocations and stacking faults on the surface layer after LSP, the grains were refined and nano-grains existed.
3.2. Surface roughness
The 3-D morphologies of the untreated and LSP-treated sample surfaces were observed by laser scanning confocal microscope as shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that the surface of the untreated sample is uneven. The surface shows relatively large undulations with some bumps and pits. After the LSP treatment as shown in Fig. 6(b)-(d), the surfaces are relatively flat with convex structures and there are no obvious concave features. It shows that the bumps and pits at the surface are reduced after the LSP process. Moreover, it can be found that with the increase of laser energy, the surface roughness is reduced. The surface roughness of the untreated sample in Fig. 6(a) is 0.685 μm which is the largest among the four samples. With the increase of laser energy in the LSP treatment, the surface roughness decreases. The lowest surface roughness is 0.583 μm when the laser energy is 8 J as shown in Fig. 6(d).
Due to the Gaussian distribution of laser energy on the sample surface, uneven plastic deformation occurs on the surface of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. During the LSP process, the interior of the sample is affected by the plasma shock wave, and irreversible plastic deformation will occur when the stress peak exceeds the elastic limit of the material. Along the impact direction, the compression plastic deformation layer with a certain depth will form. The shock wave as well as the material in the compression plastic deformation layer will spread to both sides along the direction perpendicular to the propagation of the shock wave. Both the plastic deformation and the material transfer will help reduce the bumps and pits on the surface of the sample, affecting the surface morphology and roughness.
The 2-D profile curve of the Ti-6Al-4V sample surface was also characterized as shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen the surface profile curve of the untreated sample fluctuates greatly, and the height difference is about 7.04 μm. After the LSP process, the height difference of the surface of the sample is lower than that of the untreated sample. The height differences of the LSP-treated samples with laser energy of 7 J and 8 J are 4.84 μm and 5.91 μm, respectively. This phenomenon is slightly different from the variation characteristics of surface roughness. The main reason for the change in surface roughness is the plastic deformation of the surface caused by laser shock. In the LSP process, the material surface undergoes elastic-plastic deformation, in which irreversible plastic deformation makes the metal in the impact zone flow along the surface to the outer edge, forming plastic deformation flow. Under the effect of the laser shock and the surrounding metals, local uneven plastic deformation will be formed in the shock area. These local plastic deformations will affect the distribution of convex and concave features, resulting in the change of surface roughness of the sample. Therefore, the LSP process helps weaken the existence of convex features and reduce surface roughness. The impact with higher laser energy will lead to a decrease in roughness which is different from the research [33] that the surface roughness increases with the increase of laser energy. The reason may be that the roughness measured in this study is in the local region of around 650 μm.
3.3. Microhardness
The microhardness at the surface and along the depth direction of the untreated sample and LSP-treated samples were measured as shown in Fig. 8. In the untreated sample, the microhardness along the depth direction shows to be between 338.9 HV and 339.7 HV, and the average value is 339.4 HV. It can be seen that the surface microhardness of Ti-6Al-4V alloy is increased after LSP treatment. The peak microhardness of the LSP-treated samples with the laser energy of 6 J, 7 J, and 8 J are 387.3 HV, 392.4 HV, and 396.1 HV, respectively. After LSP treatment, the microhardness at the surface increased by 14.12%, 15.63%, and 16.70% compared with the untreated sample. With the increase of laser energy, the peak microhardness is increased. This is because the pressure produced by laser shock is as high as several GPa, which leads to plastic deformation with a high strain rate of 107 s-1 on the surface region of the material, which promotes the nucleation and growth of dislocations and the generation of twins, stacking faults, and other defects. With the increase of laser energy, more energy will be transferred to the Ti-6Al-4V matrix, resulting in more serious plastic deformation. And, the probability of defect formation such as dislocations, twins, and stacking faults will be increased with the increase of laser energy, which will eventually lead to an increase in microhardness.
It also can be seen in Fig. 8 that, from the surface to the interior of the LSP-treated sample, the microhardness has a decreasing trend until a stable value of 339.4 HV which is the microhardness of the matrix. The decreasing trend of microhardness of samples with different impact energy is the same, and the thickness of the high-microhardness layer is about 350 μm. It is because the shock wave produced by LSP gradually is weakened with the increase of propagation depth. The degree of plastic deformation of the material also gradually decreases, which makes the microhardness of the material gradually decrease and stabilize in the range of matrix hardness. Zhang et al. [34] found that the high density of dislocations promoted the increase of the microhardness of the material surface. Based on the relationship between the microhardness and dislocation density [35], the increase of microhardness after LSP is closely related to the high dislocation density on the surface layer. According to the Hall-Petch relation [36], the strength of a material is inversely proportional to its grain size. In the LSP process, the laser-induced shock wave has intense interaction with the material, which leads to an increase in dislocation density and grain refinement on the surface of the material. As a result, the microhardness and surface strength can be increased after the LSP process.
3.4. Tribological property
The wear test was carried out to investigate the effect of LSP on the tribological property of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The variation curve of the friction coefficient with time is shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the changing trends of friction coefficients of all the untreated sample and the LSP-treated samples are almost the same. A similar trend shows to be increasing until stable. At the initial stage, the friction coefficient increases rapidly, which is the running-in stage of the wear process. The initial contact area between the friction pair and the surface of the sample is small and the wear is serious. The irregular protrusions on the surface are destroyed at the initial stage and fall off to form hard particles on the worn surface. During the wear test, the wear debris on the surface of Ti-6Al-4V gradually increases, which will accumulate on the wear surface to hinder sliding, increasing the friction coefficient. In the meantime, the contact mode between Al2O3 grinding ball and the worn surface changes from point-to-surface contact to surface-to-surface contact.
It also can be seen in Fig. 9 that the friction coefficient of the samples after the LSP treatment is smaller than that of the untreated sample. Moreover, with the increase of laser energy, the average friction coefficient decreases. It shows that the LSP process is beneficial to improve the tribological property of Ti-6Al-4V alloy.
The average friction coefficient is further calculated to directly express the wear resistance as shown in Fig. 10. As can be seen that the average friction coefficients of the untreated sample and LSP-treated samples with laser energy of 6 J, 7 J, and 8 J are 0.34, 0.31, 0.29, and 0.24, respectively. The average friction coefficient of untreated samples is the largest, and the average friction coefficient decreases after the LSP treatment. Moreover, with the increase of laser energy, the average friction coefficient of the LSP-treated sample decreases which shows that the wear resistance of the samples has been improved.
It is known that the surface roughness of materials has an important influence on wear performance. The rougher the surface of the material, the greater the friction coefficient produced during the wear process. Moreover, it is easy for the rough surface to produce wear debris at the initial stage, which harms the wear resistance. In this study, the surface roughness of the sample is reduced after the LSP treatment, which is beneficial to the tribological property of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The decrease in the average friction coefficient is consistent with the results of the surface roughness. According to Holm-Archard [37], hardness is one of the important indexes to measure the tribological property of materials. The greater the surface hardness of the material, the better the wear resistance of the material. In addition, the thicker the hardness strengthening layer, the longer the fatigue life of the material.
Fig. 11 shows the wear morphology of the untreated sample and LSP-treated samples. To quantitatively analyze the worn surface, 3-D images of the worn surface were observed by using a laser scanning confocal microscope as shown in Fig. 12. As shown in Fig. 11(a), on the surface of the untreated sample, there are many fine wear debris, groove friction marks with different depths, and a small number of pitting pits. On the surface of the LSP-treated samples as shown in Fig. 11(b)-(d), the width of the furrow is smaller compared with that of the untreated sample, and there are more plastic deformation layers as shown in Fig. 12(b)-(d). However, there are several large particles on the surfaces of the LSP-treated samples.
EDS point scanning was carried out on the surfaces of the samples and the results are shown in Table 2. The results of points 1, 3, and 7 indicate that there is oxygen existed in the large particles. Points 4 and 5 show there is also oxygen existing on the edge of the plastic deformation layer but the content is less. There is no oxygen observed in the Ti-6Al-4V substance. The large particles do not fall off from the plastic deformation layer and can be oxidized during the wear test.
Table 2 EDS analysis of the wear surface of Ti-6Al-4V samples.
at. %
|
Ti
|
Al
|
V
|
O
|
1
|
33.33
|
12.83
|
1.78
|
52.07
|
2
|
83.43
|
12.24
|
4.33
|
|
3
|
23.72
|
18.82
|
1.21
|
56.25
|
4
|
56.66
|
22.48
|
3.34
|
17.52
|
5
|
67.38
|
11.21
|
3.88
|
17.53
|
6
|
84.43
|
10.81
|
4.76
|
|
7
|
41.34
|
17.2
|
2.95
|
38.51
|
8
|
83.67
|
11.45
|
4.88
|
|
In the wear test under normal load, the sample surface in contact with the Al2O3 grinding ball deforms at first, and then falls off, forming a large number of irregular abrasive dust. At this stage, the friction coefficient will increase rapidly. When the surface is rougher, more debris will generate at the initial stage, which is consistent with the trend obtained in Fig.9. Since the abrasive dust content increases with time, the hard oxide particles participate in the friction process, promoting the occurrence of abrasive wear. The abrasive particles slide along the surface of the sample during the wear test, which results in furrows and micro-cuttings on the surface as shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12. It can be seen that the furrow morphology occupies most of the worn surface, which indicates that abrasive wear plays a leading role in the wear test. On the other hand, the hard oxide abrasive particles and abrasive marks can produce stress concentration on the surface during the wear test, which leads to the nucleation and growth of microcracks. The growth of the cracks will lead to a peeling and pitting phenomenon and eventually cause fatigue wear on the surface. According to the EDS results in Table 3, there is oxygen existed in the debris, which indicates that oxidative wear occurs during the wear process. It can be seen that the wear mechanism of the Ti-6Al-4V includes the synergistic effect of abrasive wear, fatigue wear, and oxidation wear.