The low hardness and poor wear resistance of AISI 316 L austenitic stainless-steel sabotage its outer appearance and shorten its service life when it is subjected to sliding. In this paper, the single-pass ultrasonic surface rolling (USR) process was used to modify the surface of 316 L austenitic stainless steel. A nanostructured surface layer with a depth span of 15 μm was fabricated. Dry wear tests of USR samples were performed on a ring-on-block tester at room temperature, and the results were compared with those for the as-received sample. The USR sample showed a significant reduction in wear mass loss and an improved hardness, as well as a decreased surface roughness. The detailed wear mechanism was also investigated by SEM observations of the worn surfaces. It was indicated that oxidation and abrasive wear, accompanied by mild adhesion, dominated the wear of USR 316 L stainless steel at both low and high speeds. The superior wear performance of USR 316 L was attributed to its nanostructured surface layer, which was characterized by a high hardness and thereby suppressed the severe abrasive wear. The results provided an alternative approach to modifying the surface of 316 L stainless steel, without changing its surface chemical components.

Silicon undergoes a brittle-to-ductile transition as its characteristic dimension reduces from macroscale to nanoscale. The thorough understanding of the plastic deformation mechanism of silicon at the nanoscale is still challenging, although it is essential for developing Si-based micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). Given the wide application of silicon in extreme conditions, it is, therefore, highly desirable to reveal the nanomechanical behavior of silicon from cryogenic temperature to elevated temperature. In this paper, large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to reveal the spherical nanoindentation response and plastic deformation mechanism of (110)Si at the temperature range of 0.5 K to 573 K. Special attention was paid to the effect of temperature. Multiple pop-ins detected in load/pressure-indentation strain curves are impacted by temperature. Four featured structures induced by nanoindentation, including high-pressure phases, extrusion of α-Si, dislocations, and crack, are observed at all temperatures, consistent with experiment results. The detailed structure evolution of silicon was revealed at the atomic scale and its dependence on temperature was analyzed. Furthermore, structure changes were correlated with pop-ins in load/pressure-indentation strain curves. These results may advance our understanding of the mechanical properties of silicon.