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The effects of manganese content and mould

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chromiummanganese iron systems
investigated by positron lifetime spectroscopy
ARTICLE in WEAR SEPTEMBER 2009
Impact Factor: 1.91 DOI: 10.1016/j.wear.2009.06.001

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The effects of manganese content and mould size on abrasion and slurry erosion
behaviour of chromiummanganese iron systems investigated by positron
lifetime spectroscopy
P. Sampathkumaran a , C. Ranganathaiah b, , S. Seetharamu a , Kishore c
a

Materials Technology Division, Central Power Research Institute, Bangalore-560080, India

Department of Studies in Physics, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore-570005, India
c
Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, India
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 25 July 2008
Received in revised form 16 March 2009
Accepted 1 June 2009
Available online 11 June 2009
Keywords:
Cast iron
Hardness
Slurry erosion
Abrasion
Thermal effects
Power generation

a b s t r a c t
Abrasion and slurry erosion behaviour of chromiummanganese iron samples with chromium (Cr) in the
range 1619% and manganese (Mn) at 5 and 10% levels have been characterized for hardness followed
by microstructural examination using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Positron lifetime studies have been conducted to understand the defects/microporosity inuence on the microstructure. The
samples were heat treated and characterized to understand the structural transformations in the matrix.
The data reveals that hardness decreased with increase in Mn content from 5 to 10% in the rst instance
and then increase in the section size in the other case, irrespective of the sample conditions. The abrasion
and slurry erosion losses show increase with increase in the section size as well as with increase in Mn
content. The positron results show that as hardness increases from as-cast to heat treated sample, the
positron trapping rate and hence defect concentration showed opposite trend as expected. So a good
correlation between defects concentration and the hardness has been observed. These ndings also corroborate well with the microstructural features obtained from optical and scanning electron microscopy.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The wear resistant materials used in thermal power generation plants are susceptible to metal wastage due to the presence of
quartz in coal. Generally, ferrous based wear resistance materials
are used [1,2]. Among them, high chromium iron is one such material as it contains hard (M7 C3 ) carbides in a martensitic matrix, but
it suffers from the point of poor impact resistance. For improving
the impact behaviour, manganese is added to Cr iron as an austenite
stabilizing agent. From literature reports we found that use of Mn in
Cr iron only up to 4.4% beyond which there is hardly any published
report [3] on this aspect. Further, the inuence of microstructure
on the wear and mechanical properties in high Cr irons has been
investigated by various researchers [4,5]. However, the information
on this aspect in CrMn iron system is scanty. Also there is no report
on a new and novel NDT technique such as positron lifetime spectroscopy (PLS) being used to characterize the CrMn iron samples
for defects quantication, as PLS is a powerful and well established
tool for studying the defects and their concentration levels in any

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cr@physics.uni-mysore.ac.in (C. Ranganathaiah).
0043-1648/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2009.06.001

material system [6,7]. PLS is quite sensitive to open volume defects

and small vacancy clusters. In this context, we made an attempt to
evolve a correlation between wear and PLS parameters, particularly
the defects concentration since no such effort has not been made
in the past. PLS technique has been extensively applied to study
metals [810] in which attention has been focused on various damage assessment aspects especially fatigue accumulation damage in
stainless steels for visualization of on set of fatigue [11].
The present investigation reports on the use of metal and sand
moulds in making Cr (1014%) iron with Mn addition at two levels
(5 and 10%) and their inuence on wear and metallurgical properties in both as cast and heat treated conditions. The microstructure
(optical and scanning electron microscopy) approach has been
adopted to study the effect of manganese content increase as well
as the inuence of mould type on the microstructure and in turn
the wear properties and their relation to defects in the system.
2. Experiments
The CrMn iron samples were made by induction melting and
casting route. The samples were prepared using the metal and sand
moulds in section sizes of 12, 24 and 40 mm in the 5% Mn case
and 12 and 24 mm in the 10% Mn case for the present experiments.

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Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of slurry erosion test rig.

and the test sample (75 mm 25 mm 6 mm), whose initial weight

was measured using a high precision electronic balance. The sample was then dead weight loaded (13 kg) against the rotating wheel
for a xed (6000) number of revolutions. At the end of 6000 revolutions, the sample was cleaned, dried and weighed again in the same
balance for noting its nal weight. The difference in the initial and
nal weight readings of the sample gives the abrasion wear loss.
The measurements were done on two representative samples and
the average of the two readings is reported.

Fig. 1. Photograph of rubber wheel abrasion machine.

2.4. Slurry erosion

Heat treatment involving austenitization soak at 960 C for 2 h

followed by oil quench were given to the test samples of size
75 mm 25 mm 6 mm, made from the castings. Subsequently, the
samples were tempered at 200 C for 30 min, followed by air cooling
to room temperature.

The experimental arrangement used for the slurry erosion tests

in the present investigation is shown in Fig. 2. For this test, four test
samples of size 75 mm 25 mm 6 mm and known initial weights
were kept in the sample holders attached to a disc by lifting the
disc assembly through a rotary arrangement. A motor, through a
belt connected between two pulleys, drives the disc assembly consisting of a disc and a shaft. A double-walled slurry tank, made of
steel, was lled with AFS 60 grade silica sand and water in the ratio
1:1 by weight. The water tank was provided with an inlet and outlet
connections for the continuous ow of water from a tap to cool the
inside portion of the tank. The test was started after closing the lid
and positioning one side of the belt in one of the two slots provided
on the motor side to get 500 rpm and the other side was connected
to the other pulley attached to the disc assembly. Four bafe plates
were provided inside the slurry tank for effective churning action of
the slurry media. The test was stopped at the end of two hours. The
samples were then removed, cleaned and again weighed. The difference in the value between the initial and nal weights indicating
the slurry erosion weight loss was used in the data analysis. Three
measurements were done on two representative samples (i.e., leading to a total of six readings) and the average value calculated thus
was used for data reporting. The repeatability of wear test runs was
ascertained by determining the coefcient of variation, CV [13].

2.3. Rubber wheel abrasion

2.5. Hardness

The rubber wheel abrasion tests set up used in the present work
is shown in Fig. 1 and measurements were done as per ASTM G-65
guidelines. In this test, the abrasive silica sand (AFS 60 grade) was
fed at the interface between the rotating rubber wheel (200 rpm)

INSTRON WOLPERT machine was used to measure the hardness

on Rockwell C scale (HRc) using a diamond cone type of indenter,
at a load of 150 kgf. Average of six readings, three each taken on two
representative samples, was calculated and reported here.

The samples were characterized for hardness, abrasion and slurry

erosion properties followed by the microstructural examination
involving optical and scanning microscopy and defects characterization by positron lifetime spectroscopy. These measurements
were performed in the as cast and heat treated conditions.
2.1. Material preparation
The charge materials such as ferromanganese, ferrochrome, mild
steel scrap were added sequentially to produce castings of size
125 mm 150 mm 25 mm, in the grey iron moulds with varied
section thickness by the induction melting and casting route. The
earlier report [12] gives more details on melting and casting procedures followed in sample preparation.
2.2. Heat treatment

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2.6. Microstructure
NIKON optical metallurgical microscope was used to study the
microstructural features. An image analyzer was employed to determine the carbide volume fraction in the samples. XRD technique
was adopted to measure the retained austenite content using
RIGAKU X-ray analyzer. The ner surface features on select samples were examined using LEICA scanning electron microscope
(SEM).
2.7. Positron lifetime spectroscopy
Positron (e+ ) is the antiparticle of electron (e ). The electromagnetic interaction between electrons and positrons results in
the annihilation of e+ e pairs in which the total energy of the
annihilating pair is transferred to quanta of the electromagnetic
eld-photons ( rays). This process is called positron annihilation
in a material medium. The positron lifetime in a material medium
is dened as the survival time of positron in the medium before it
annihilates. Therefore, the lifetime of a positron is directly related
to the electron density it will run into and annihilates. The electron density of the material governs positron lifetimes in materials;
higher the electron density, shorter is the lifetime [810]. Measurement of positron lifetime constitutes what is known as positron
lifetime spectroscopy (PLS).
Positrons from a radioactive source (commonly 22 Na) are
injected into a material medium. Positrons loose their kinetic
energy and reach thermal energy in a very short time (around 1 ps),
after interacting with medium through inelastic collision processes.
During the thermalized stage, a positron, picks up an electron
from the medium and annihilate producing predominantly two
gamma photons. The annihilation may be from a free state called
free positron annihilation, or get trapped in to defects present in
crystalline, crystalline-amorphous interface regions and then annihilate called trapped annihilation [810]. Since positrons localize
in defects [810] and annihilate from such sites, their lifetime and
intensity provide the information of the nature of the defects and
concentration. Hence this NDT technique found immense use over
the last few decades in the study of microstructural behaviour of
metals, alloys, polymers, etc. [810].
Positron annihilation lifetime spectra were recorded for the
present samples using positron lifetime spectrometer. The spectrometer consists of a fastfast coincidence system with BaF2
scintillators coupled to photo multiplier tubes type XP2020/Q with
quartz window as detectors. The BaF2 conical shaped scintillators
were used to achieve better time resolution. The two identical
pieces of the sample were placed on either side of a 17 Ci 22 Na
positron source, deposited on a pure Kapton foil of 0.0127 mm
thickness. This sample-source sandwich was placed between the
two detectors of the spectrometer to acquire the lifetime spectrum. The 60 Co prompt time spectrum gave 180 ps as the resolution
function. However, to have increased count rate, the spectrometer was operated at 220 ps [14,15]. All lifetime measurements were
performed at room temperature with more than a million counts
under each spectrum recorded in a time of 12 h. Source correction term and resolution functions were estimated from the lifetime
of annealed aluminum using the program RESOLUTION [16]. Since
the single Gaussian resolution function did not yield convergence,
the resolution function was resolved further into three Gaussian
components, which gave quick and good convergence. The net
resolution function for this however, was 220 ps. Therefore three
Gaussian resolution functions were used in the present analysis
of positron lifetime spectra in all the samples. All spectra were
analyzed into two lifetime components with the help of the computer program PATFIT-88 [16] with proper source and background
corrections.

The positron lifetime spectrum consists of a sum of exponential decay components with the lifetime  i and their intensities Ii .
Positrons annihilate from the delocalized ground state in a perfect
crystal and a single positron lifetime will be measured,  =  b (b:
bulk). In the presence of defects of a distinct type, positrons may get
localized in the defects and annihilate with a second lifetime called
trapped positron lifetime  2 =  d (d: defect). This lifetime is larger
than  b for open-volume defects, such as vacancies, due to decrease
in the electron density in defect compared to bulk material. The lifetime spectrum then consists, of two components. Present lifetime
spectra in CrMn iron systems were resolved in to two lifetime components  1 and  2 with corresponding intensities I1 and I2 . From
these lifetime components and intensities, the positron trapping
rate at defects, K, is determined by calculating the average positron
lifetime as
av =

I1 1 + I2 2
I1 + I2

(1)

where  1 is  b and  2 =  d .
The positron trapping rate K is proportional to the defect concentration Cd of the system under study [8,9]. The proportionality
constant  is the trapping coefcient, and is related to Cd as given
below.
Cd =

1
K
=

 b

  
av
b
d av

(2)

 was calculated by an independent reference method. From this it

is clear that defect concentration Cd is directly proportional to the
positron trapping rate K. In the present study we discuss defects
concentration in terms of the parameter K only.
3. Results and discussion
The sample designations followed in this work are as follows.
The rst numeral followed by a letter and then a numeral. The
numeral refers to Mn content, the letter stand for type of mould
used and the last number indicates the section size in mm. Hence,
for example, 5% Mn bearing metal cast sample of 12 mm section
size is designated as 5M12, while the 10% Mn bearing sand molded
sample having 24 mm size has the symbol 10S24. A typical SEM
photograph of silica sand used in the abrasion and slurry erosion
experiments is given in Fig. 3. In Fig. 4 we provide a typical positron
lifetime spectrum of CrMn iron systems. The chemical compositions of the castings are given in Table 1.

Fig. 3. SEM picture of the silica sand used in abrasion and slurry erosion experiments.

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5M12 and 5M40 samples are shown in Figs. 7a and b and 8a and b,
respectively. Fig. 9a and b display the optical features of 10M12 in
respect of as-cast and heat treated samples. The SEM features of
heat-treated 5M12 and 10M12 samples are displayed in Fig. 10ac,
respectively.
3.1. Inuence of manganese content and section size increase on
positron lifetime parameters.
The mean range of positrons in the CrMn iron systems estimated [9] to be 32.93 m. For thick section size samples, positrons
are expected to probe the bulk of the system. Hence, in the
absence of any defects, the mean lifetime in these samples shall
be 104 1012 s or 104 ps. If a higher mean lifetime for sample than
the expected value of 104 ps indicates that there are defects in the
sample. The theoretical estimate of the expected defect lifetime for
these systems assuming monovacancy type defects turns out to be
183 ps, but as we can see from Table 3, it is observed that the lifetime is in the range 200226 ps, which is certainly higher. In the
analysis we xed the rst lifetime component to a value of 107 ps
which is the positron lifetime in defect free iron which is the major
component of the system studied here. This certainly points out to
the fact that the defects are not of mono vacancy type but of bigger
size evolved during the moulding process of the CrMnFe system
and these vary depending upon the section size also due to variation in heat transfer process. Although the mean range of positrons
in all these systems is the same, but their defect lifetime varies with
respect to the thickness as explained below. For each sample section
size, heat transfer process appears to be different with the result;
a different microstructure is evolved as the sample gets cooled. It
is observed that a consistent reduction in mean lifetime for samples after heat treatment (Table 3) indicates that some defects are
indeed annealed out. As the fraction of positrons probing the single

Fig. 4. Positron lifetime spectrum in CrMn iron.

The data for abrasion, slurry erosion and the microstructural

content, i.e., retained austenite content (RA%) and carbide volume
fraction (CV%) are tabulated in Table 2. The data on positron lifetime
parameters and the results derived from them are given in Table 3.
While correlating the positron trapping rate which is proportional to defect concentration in a better way, we have plotted the
change in the hardness in percent going from the as cast (AC) condition to heat treated condition (HT) with corresponding change in
the trapping rate again in percent for the 5 and 10% Mn bearing samples. These are shown in Fig. 5a and b, respectively. In the same way,
the change in positron trapping rate in percent going from the AC to
HT for abrasion and slurry erosion data of 5M12, 5M24 and 5M40
and 10M12 and 10M24 samples are shown in Fig. 6a and b, respectively. The optical microscopic features of as-cast and heat treated
Table 1
Chemical composition of chromium manganese iron samples.
Sl. no.

1
2
3
4
5

Sample designation

5M12
5M24
5M40
10M12
10M24

Composition (wt.%)
C

Mn

Si

Cr

Ni

Mo

2.36
2.39
2.55
2.32
2.35

4.5
4.6
4.8
9.7
9.7

2.69
2.78
2.10
1.90
1.85

18.58
18.62
17.90
17.65
17.60

0.91
0.92
0.81
0.80
0.82

1.87
1.82
1.90
1.85
1.80

0.046
0.044
0.057
0.040
0.040

0.080
0.090
0.075
0.090
0.085

Table 2
Abrasion, slurry erosion data and microstructural content of chromiummanganese iron samples.
Sl. no.

1
2
3
4
5

Sample designation

5M12
5M24
5M40
10M12
10M24

Abrasion cm3 /kg 102

Erosion cm3 /kg 103

Slurry erosion g 103

Impact (J)

AC

HT

AC

HT

AC

HT

AC

HT

0.99
1.18
1.69
1.58
1.91

0.71
.95
1.57
1.31
1.68

7.58
7.74
9.61
8.60
9.74

7.02
7.21
8.99
8.16
9.42

15.2
17.5
20.8
19.3
22.6

12.5
14.7
19.3
16.8
20.1

1.4
1.8
2.8
2.6
2.5

2.6
2.6
4.0
4.3
4.5

Table 3
Positron lifetime parameters of chromium manganese iron samples.
Sl. no.

Sample

PAS parameters ( 1 = 107 ps was xed in the analysis which corresponds to positron lifetime in Fe system)
I1 0.1 (%)

1
2
3
4
5

5M12
5M24
5M40
10M12
10M24

 2 0.02 (ps)

I2 0.1 (%)

 avg (ps)

K (109 )

AC

HT

AC

HT

AC

HT

AC

HT

AC

HT

67.7
67.5
66.8
68.8
68.6

69.9
69.2
67.4
69.9
69.5

200.3
215.3
218.4
217.2
226.2

185.3
197.2
201.3
214.6
224.0

32.3
32.5
33.2
31.2
31.4

30.1
30.8
32.6
30.0
30.5

137.0
142.2
144.4
141.3
144.3

130.0
134.7
137.7
139.2
143.0

4.45
4.52
4.64
4.23
4.24

4.02
4.22
4.52
4.08
4.14

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Fig. 5. (a) Plot of change in hardness (%) with respect to change in trapping rate (%)
from AC to HT of 5M12, 5M24 and 5M40 samples and (b) plot of change in hardness
(%) with respect to change in trapping rate (%) from AC to HT of 10M12 and 10M24
samples.

interface is negligible due to the mean positron diffusion length of

few hundred nanometers, very little trapping is expected from the
interface. These facts indicate that most of the positrons are getting
annihilated in the bulk state as suggested by I2 values in Table 3.
From Table 3, it is also quite evident that with the increase in
manganese level from 5 to 10%, irrespective of whether the sample is in as-cast or in heat treated condition or the sample having
section size 12 or 24 mm, the lifetime of positrons as well as intensity corresponding to positron annihilation in the defect trapped
state increase. Parallely, the hardness and wear losses (i.e., abrasion and slurry erosion) show an increasing trend (Table 2). That
suggests that higher Mn (10%) bearing sample seems to contain
bigger defect size compared to 5% Mn bearing case. Also, increase
in section size results in increased number of defects or increase
in porosity. These data are well supported by the optical as well as
SEM features shown in Figs. 710, where in a comparison has been
made between the as-cast and heat treated samples. 5M12 as-cast
sample having CV 29%, following heat treatment shows hardness
change from 56 to 63 HRc, RA (marked by arrow in Fig. 7a and b), the
microstructural features on the other hand, records a change from
ne primary carbides marked F with hexagonal small sizes marked
H plus higher aspect ratio bearing hexagonal carbides marked S
(Fig. 7a) to very ne carbides marked V due to spheroidization tendency of carbides (Fig. 7b). For the sample 5M40, on heat treatment

Fig. 6. (a) Plot of change in abrasion and slurry erosion losses (%) with respect change
in trapping rate (%) from AC to HT of 5M12, 5M24 and 5M40 samples and (b) plot
of change in abrasion and slurry erosion losses (%) with respect change in trapping
rate (%) from AC to HT of 10M12 and 10M24 samples.

exhibits higher aspect ratio carbides (marked A) as seen in Fig. 8b.

But they are smaller in size compared to as-cast condition (Fig. 8a)
and RA getting reduced to 57 from 61% (marked by arrow in Fig. 8a
and b). The as-cast 5M40 reveals (Fig. 8a) long carbides marked L
plus medium sized carbides. Similarly, 10M12 having CV 26% up on
heat treatment shows change in the hardness from 52 to 55 HRc
and decrease in RA% (marked by arrow in Fig. 9a and b) from 60 to
55, which are mainly due to the presence of ne carbides marked
B (Fig. 9a) and of much bigger size compared to 5M12 sample in
which they change to ne carbide net work marked C with good
distribution (Fig. 9b). In the respective heat treated samples, the
carbides are quite compact and resulting in less number of defects
which are evident from Figs. 7b and 9b. Thus, higher hardness and
in turn improved wear characteristics results for which defect concentration (trapping rate) case is lower for 5% Mn bearing heat
treated sample compared to 10% Mn case. These changes can be
attributed to the microstructure as well as carbide morphological
features seen. Thus we can conclude that this work has nally led
to good correlations among hardness, wear and positron parameters particularly defect concentration through the features obtained
microstructural examination from other tools.

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Fig. 7. (a) Optical photomicrograph of AC metal mould 5% manganese bearing 12 mm

section size sample and (b) optical photomicrograph of HT metal mould 5% manganese bearing 12 mm section size sample.

3.2. Hardness and wear characteristics-correlation to defects

concentration on heat treatment
It is very well seen from Fig. 5a and b that a reversal in trend is
noticed in respect of change in hardness (% increase) with respect to
change in the trapping rate (% decrease) for the increase in section
size from 5 to 40 mm in 5% Mn bearing sample and 1224 mm in 10%
Mn bearing case. This is on the expected lines in view of the reason
that higher section size (40 or 24 mm as the case may be) sample
takes more time to cool in the mould leading to more defects getting
evolved and hence higher trapping rate. Further, these observations are interpreted based on the structural features. Sample 5M12
shows carbide morphological features with lower RA%, which are
much better than that of either 5M24 or 5M40 following heat
treatment. Thus, the heat treated 5M12 records very ne carbides
marked V (Fig. 7b) as the carbides are spheroidized with RA 47%
and CV 29%, where as 5M40 shows higher aspect ratio carbides
marked A (Fig. 8b) of smaller size with RA 57% and CV 26.5% compared to the as-cast respective samples due to ne carbides (marked
F) plus occasional small sized (marked S) and hexagonal carbides
(marked H) shown in Fig. 7a with RA 54% and long (marked L)
and medium-sized carbides (Fig. 8a) with RA 61%. Similarly, 10M12
(Fig. 9b) upon heat treatment shows the optical features exhibiting
ne carbide distribution (marked C) with RA 55% and CV 26% compared to its as-cast state, but carbides of much bigger sizes (marked
B) (Fig. 9a) compared to that seen in 5M12 in the as-cast condition with RA 60%. 10M24. This is due to lenticular type of carbides

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Fig. 8. (a) Optical photomicrograph of AC metal mould 5% manganese bearing

40 mm section size sample and (b) optical photomicrograph of HT metal mould 5%
manganese bearing 40 mm section size sample.

with RA of 60% and CV 25.5% in the heat treated sample compared

to as-cast, which shows small-sized carbides with RA 63%. Hence,
the optical microscopy features are explained based on the carbide
morphological features and RA% content which are corroborating
the hardness, wear (i.e., abrasion and slurry erosion) and eventually
positron annihilation data.
The occurrence of spheroidization of carbides is evident in 5M12,
following heat treatment, from the SEM photograph displayed in
Fig. 10a. Fig. 10b shows the SEM features of 5M12 at higher magnication, where in it is seen that the average carbide size is
around 5 m. Fig. 10c shows the SEM picture of 10M12 featuring
the presence of ne carbides, which are much bigger in size compared to 5M12 (compare Fig. 10a with Fig. 10c). The occurrence
of spheroidization of carbides and their good networking seen in
5M12 is due to the heat treatment which could be a prime factor
contributing to higher hardness, lower abrasion and slurry erosion
losses and lower positron trapping rate or defect concentration.
Thus, the SEM features reinforce the observations of the optical
features which have been used to explain the lower abrasion and
slurry erosion losses which correlate well with the positron data
and shows that 5M12 sample is better compared to 10M12.
An investigation reported in literature [17] on duo-cast materials composing of high chromium white cast iron and low chromium
steel samples showed signicant improvement in the wear resistance as well as fracture toughness following heat treatment.
Another work reported [18] on the permanent moulded high
chromium iron showed better erosion resistance due to the sper-

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Fig. 9. (a) Optical photomicrograph of AC metal mould 10% manganese bearing

12 mm section size sample and (b) optical photomicrograph of HT metal mould 10%
manganese bearing 12 mm section size sample.

oidization of carbides noticed due to the heat treatment. The

present nding of lower abrasion and slurry erosion losses in the
lowest section samples irrespective of the manganese content in
the heat treated condition is in line with the above reported data
[17,18]. Positron data support that in lower section sizes, positron
trapping rate is less and hence defects are less and as such hence the
lower section size seems to be better choice to get the near desired
properties.
One of the important points inferred from this part of the work
is that irrespective of the manganese levels adopted (i.e., 5 or 10%)
and also their test condition (i.e., as-cast or heat treated), the lowest section thickness samples, expectedly show primary carbides
of much smaller size (spheroidization of carbides) compared to the
one seen in the highest section size sample, owing to the differences in the heat transfer characteristics. The reasons for higher
hardness in lower section thickness samples both in the as-cast and
heat treated conditions are attributed to the carbide morphological features such as ner size, its homogeneous distribution as well
as decrease in the austenite content. These features are supportive
of abrasion and slurry erosion data further supported by PLS data
trends observed for both 5 and 10% Mn bearing cases.
It is known from the published literature [19,20] that both
the strength and hardness in ferrous materials decrease when
the grain/carbide size increases beyond a certain level. Thus, the
present nding of lower hardness values and hence higher abrasion and slurry erosion losses in 5M24, 5M40 and 10M24 (due to
bigger carbide size) obtained in these cases compared to their low-

Fig. 10. (a) SEM photograph of HT 5% manganese bearing 12 mm section size sample
at 2000 and (b) SEM photograph of HT 5% manganese bearing 12 mm section size
sample at 4000, (c) SEM photograph of HT 10% manganese bearing 12 mm section
size sample at 2000.

est section size counterparts is in agreement with these published

data [19,20]. Since there is no data available to reinforce the ndings of positron annihilation data with respect to these samples for
hardness or wear properties, hence this may be considered as rst
of its kind in CrMn iron systems.
In summary, the present work emphasizes the role played by
the cast section thickness of the metal mould and then how the

Author's personal copy

P. Sampathkumaran et al. / Wear 267 (2009) 15581565

subsequent heat treatment (i.e., spheroidization of carbides) brings

about a performance difference with regard to the wear characteristics which is very well correlated by positron lifetime spectroscopy
in terms of defects concentration in CrMn alloy systems. Further, this work illustrates a good structureproperty correlation
through positron annihilation parameters and hence suggests that
this method could be adopted for systems of this type to understand
the microstructural features such as deformation, defects content,
etc., of CrMn iron systems to understand the macroscopic properties in a better way.
4. Conclusions
The important ndings that emerged from this work on CrMn
iron system are summarized below.
Lower the Mn content, higher is the hardness and wear resistance
(lower wear losses).
Less defect concentrations are noticed in the 5% Mn bearing
sample than in 10% Mn bearing ones due to higher cooling rate
prevailed in the former sample.
Heat treatment resulted in increase in the hardness and wear
resistance and less defect concentration compared to the as-cast
counterparts.
In the heat treated condition, the lower section size (i.e., 12 mm)
exhibits higher hardness as well as wear resistance compared to
either 40 mm size in 5% Mn case or 24 mm size in the 10% Mn
case.
Irrespective of the Mn level or section size, defect concentrations
are lower in the heat treated samples compared to the respective
as-cast samples.
The occurrence of spheroidization of carbides (as seen from the
SEM photographs) in the 5% Mn bearing having 12 mm section
thickness, following heat treatment has recorded highest hardness and least abrasion and slurry erosion characteristics among
the samples studied. Further, the PLS data shows that the smaller
sized defects and lower defect concentrations as evidenced by
lower positron trapping rates observed.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the management of Central Power Research
Institute for having accorded permission to publish this paper. The
authors wish to acknowledge with thanks Mr. J. Shankar and Mr.
Balakrishna Sake of MTD, CPRI and Mr. J.M. Raj, Junior Research
Scholar, Department of Studies in Physics, Mysore University for

1565

their support in conducting the experiments. One of the authors

(Kishore) would like to thank CSIR for the award of fellowship under
Emeritus Scientist Scheme.
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