Recent content by rmw228

This doesn't sound like residual stress to me. Consider that copper has an FCC crystal structure and steel generally has a BCC crystal structure. Do these structures have different slip systems?

I wouldn't expect you'll get a very good adhesion with gold on any oxide. A good interface between an oxide and gold would require some sharing of the metal sublattice, and as gold is one of those super-annoying noble metals, I can't see you getting a very good bond.

Your equation, sqrt(E/rho), sounds right. The units come out right at least. Perhaps you would consider interpolating E values from some other alloys? You might be able to make a nice estimate with the values of E for Cu, Ni and 70/30.

What are you trying to coat the silver with? I suspect you'll have a hard time getting a good interface. More information would be helpful.

I wouldn't look towards a book, I would look more towards literature. A good start would be researching grain size strengthening effects noted by Hall and Petch (the Hall-Petch effect). Chris Schuh from MIT has shown a bunch of recent work on the development of thermodynamically stable...

I would actually expect aluminum (and therefore aluminum oxide) to appear on the steel surface. The steel is presumably much harder than the aluminum. Because of this, a wear process would wear away the aluminum, leaving the steel mostly intact.

If you exposed the aluminum to air at all following the wear, I would expect oxygen in the EDS signal. Aluminum oxides rapidly, and if you're doing EDS on the surface, there will be a thin layer of Al2O3. I'm not sure what you mean by microstructure descriptions.