Depleted uranium has been widely applied in nuclear energy fields. However, its poor corrosion and wear resistance restrict its applications. A titanium/titanium nitride (Ti/TiN) multilayer film was deposited on a uranium surface to improve its fretting wear resistance. Fretting wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-disc configuration. The fretting behaviors of uranium and the Ti/TiN film were investigated under different normal loads. With the normal load increasing, the mode of fretting wear gradually transformed from slip region (SR) to mixed fretting region (MFR) and then to partial slip region (PSR). It is illustrated that the normal load had an obvious effect on the fretting wear behavior. The friction coefficients of both uranium and Ti/TiN multilayer film decreased with the increase of the normal load. In SR, the main wear mechanisms were delamination and abrasion for uncoated uranium, and delamination and oxidation for uranium coated with the Ti/TiN multilayer film. Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis also showed that the Ti/TiN coating was oxidized and formed TiO₂ during fretting wear. The wear depth of naked uranium was much greater than that of coated uranium, which demonstrated that the Ti/TiN multilayer film could effectively improve the wear properties of uranium.

A fretting wear experiment with uranium has been performed on a linear reciprocating tribometer with ball-on-disk contact. This study focused on the fretting behavior of the uranium under different atmospheres (Ar, Air (21% O₂ + 78% N₂), and O₂) and vacuum conditions (1.05 and 1 × 10⁻⁴ Pa). Evolution of friction was assessed by coefficient of friction (COF) and friction-dissipated energy. The oxide of the wear surface was evaluated by Raman spectroscopy. The result shows that fretting wear behavior presents strong atmosphere and vacuum condition dependence. With increasing oxygen content, the COF decreases due to abrasive wear and formation of oxide film. The COF in the oxygen condition is at least 0.335, and it has a maximum wear volume of about 1.48 × 10⁷ μm³. However, the COF in a high vacuum condition is maximum about 1.104, and the wear volume is 1.64 × 10⁶ μm³. The COF in the low vacuum condition is very different: it firstly increased and then decreased rapidly to a steady value. It is caused by slight abrasive wear and the formation of tribofilm after thousands of cycles.