Correlation Between Microstructural And Mechanical Properties In Niobium Carbide Reinforced Hadfield Steel Composites

Abstract: Degradation of tools is a prevalent aspect in the mechanical world; due to the advancement of technologies and intense research and development, there are new ways and ideas to curb or delay the tool failures; one such idea is to implement Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) with various reinforcement materials. This thesis focuses on improving the hardness and wear resistance of Hadfield steel by reinforcing it with Niobium Carbide (NbC). This whole project is categorized into three sections, beginning with literature study, implementing theory into practice by reinforcing NbC into Hadfield steels, and later investigating the microstructural results by material characterization techniques like Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) followed by wear testing. This study involves the investigation of microstructure and hardness. The ultimate result from this thesis is determining the suitable NbC material to reinforce Hadfield steel, and the results have shown that the hardness has increased in the studied test samples.