MSE Seminar: Ryan Smith, Development of a Galling Resistant Stainless Steel-base Hardfacing Alloy

Abstract

Wear-resistant hardfacing alloys are commonly applied to metal parts that experience high loads under unlubricated conditions, such as valve seats and seals.  Current stainless-steel based hardfacing alloys show a transition to significant wear and galling under actual high temperature service conditions experienced in coolant system loops in the nuclear industry.  A fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of wear and galling as a whole is needed to develop alloy modification strategies for galling resistance.  A combination of wear testing, metallography, electron microscopy, and in-situ X-ray diffraction are used to correlate basic material deformation mechanisms and alloying with wear performance.  Nitrogen modification, coupled with powder metallurgy techniques, result in an alloy that has superior wear and galling properties, even at elevated temperature service. 

Bio

Ryan received a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University (Case), before attending the University of Wisconsin Madison and then The Ohio State University for my Ph.D.  Under advisors Dr. Suresh Babu (now of University Tennessee- Knoxville), and Dr. Peter Anderson, he works on alloy development programs for the Electric Power Research Institute. 

In his spare time, Ryan likes to write, learn program computer games, and go hiking in Ohio’s wonderful public parks.