Atomic wear mechanisms of hard chrome against Al2O3

Sammanfattning: Hard chrome exhibit hardness of about 70 HRC and lubricity that prevents seizing and galling and is therefore the common first choice for engineers to reduce friction and minimize wear. These properties enable engineering applications such as cutting and drilling, especially in manufacturing, production and consumer good industries. Hard chrome has a wide set of functions as being decorative, corrosion resistant and ease cleaning procedures. Hence, electroplating is a common process to synthesize hard chrome butthis process is banned by EU due to the rise of hazardous components. However, the need for alternative material is at rise but, fundamental issues for hard chrome are yet to be solved. The purpose of the work is to develop atomic structures for two systems using different programs such as OpenMX, VESTA and Ovito. The goal is to identify atomic wear mechanisms of hard chrome in an ideal system (Al2O3- Cr) and a real system (Al2O3 - Cr2O3) using density functional theory (DFT). These two systems are analyzed since every surface oxidises in air (real system) and under increased mechanical loads the pristine surface of hard chrome (ideal system) can be exposed to the counter body (Al2O3). DFT based molecular dynamics simulations are carried out at a temperature of 300 K and a sliding speed of 10 ms−1. The simulation interval is 0-15000 fs and radial distribution function (RDF) is employed to analyse the atomic wear mechanisms. Both systems start to show adhesive wear due to amorphization, mixed with signs of abrasive wear on the atomic scale. The systems are further analyzed using electron density distribution (EDD), that plots electronic structures enhancing the analyse of different type of bondstaking place. The bulk structures mainly show covalent bonds with ionic and metallic bonds less represented. Furthermore, same observations have been made for the interfaces of the ideal and real system.