Nano-Ordered Wear Property of Magnesium Obtaining Nanoindentation

The nano-scale wear properties of single-crystalline and polycrystalline magnesium were investigated using the nanoindentation technique. The results for single crystals revealed that the crystal orientation affected the wear rate in the case that no deformation twinning was formed, e.g., under conditions of low applied loads. However, when deformation twinning formed during scratch testing, the wear properties became worse, i.e., the wear rate increased. One reason was that twin boundaries did not play a role as dislocation sources and sinks; the dislocations at twin boundaries brought about the expansion and growth for deformation twinning. As for the impact of grain boundaries on the wear properties, the wear rate for fine-grained magnesium was similar to that for single crystals. This result indicated that the existence of grain boundaries did not effectively improve the wear properties of magnesium, as in large-scale wear testing, such as the pin-on-disk configuration.