RESUMO
This study investigated the effect of heat treatment processes on the dry sliding wear resistance of the TC21 Ti-alloy at several levels of normal load and sliding speed. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) has been used as a design of the experiment procedure. OM and FESEM besides XRD analysis were used for results justification. Highest hardness of 49 HRC was recorded for WQ + Aging specimens due to the plenty of αâ³ which decomposed to αs and the more αs, while the lowest hardness of 36 HRC was reported for WQ specimens. The results revealed that specimens subjected to water quenching and aging (WQ + Aging) under extreme load and speed conditions (50 N and 3 m/s), possessed the poorest wear resistance although they had the highest hardness. While those left in the annealed condition revealed the highest wear resistance although they had much lower hardness when compared to other conditions. A mathematical polynomial model for wear resistance expressed in wear rate was developed, validated then used to get the optimum parameters.
