In this paper, the surface microstructure and wear property of D2 wheel steel under sliding wear condition were studied by MRH-30 sliding wear tester. After testing, a transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and micro-hardness testers were used to characterize the surface microstructure of samples with different cycles. The results show that the wear losss samples are increased as the increase of cycles, and the wear loss of wheel samples is higher than that of rail samples. The surface hardness and thickness of deformation layer of wheel samples are increased as the cycles increase. After sliding wear, the samples surfaces form the white etching layer with the thickness of several microns. Through the analysis of surface microstructure of sample with 12,000 cycles, the lamellar cementite in pearlite is fragment into cementite particles with the decrease of depth from surface, and the cementite is dissolved at surface to lead to the form of white etching layer. The ferrite grains are refined gradually and the fraction of high angle grain boundary is increased with the decrease of depth from surface. The nanosgrains layer of ferrite grains with 5 μm thickness is formed. According to the result of finite element simulation of contact surface temperature, the formation of surface nanograins and the dissolution of cementite are caused by the severe plastic deformation. The fiber structure of samples is formed after sliding wear, with direction of <110>.
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