EMM4303

Tribology
Wear
 Wear

Wear is a process where interactions of two surfaces result in dimensional loss of one solid body, caused
by mechanical reasons based on contact or relative movement of a solid, liquid or gaseous object.
 Wear

• Definition: The progressive loss of substance from the operating

surface of a body occurring as a result of relative motion of the
surface (O,E,C,D, Glossary of Terms and Definitions 1969)

• Useful Life of engineering components limited by breakage,

obsolescence, wear. Practically everything made by man ‘wears
out’. Reliability increases need for understanding and control of
the wear process

• Wear can be useful in metal cutting (grinding, polishing), writing.

 Wear Characterization
Change of Wear Volume and Wear Surface Roughness with Sliding Distance

Three representative types of wear Three representative types of surface

curves in repeated contacts roughness changes in repeated contacts
 Degree of Wear / Wear Rate
Ranges of Wear Rates and Varieties of Wear Surfaces

Distribution of specific wear rate of Distribution of specific wear rates and

metallic materials in sliding contact under friction coefficients of ceramics in
different lubrication conditions. unlubricated sliding against themselves.
Wear Surfaces

• Variety of worn surface

morphologies of three kinds of
ceramics under different
operating conditions.
• The arrows indicate relative
sliding directions of counterfaces
Descriptive Key Terms

Descriptive key
words of wear and
their interrelations
 Wear Types
Types of wear:
Classified by:
• Effects a) Adhesive wear – transference of material
from one surface to another due to a
• Basic mechanism process of solid phase welding
b) Abrasive wear – displacement of material
caused by hard particles or
protuberances
c) Fatigue wear – removal of material as
result of cyclic stress variations
d) Corrosive wear – due to chemical or
electrochemical reaction with the
environment
e) Erosive wear – removal of material
resulting from relative motion with fluid
containing solid particles
 Adhesive Wear
Let's study wear on gear tooth as an example.
Scuffing occurs on both sides of the pitch line.
Changes tooth profile. Drives load density towards
pitchline. Loss of involute profile increases gear noise.

Machine surface damaged by

Adhesive wear occurs in highly-load, poorly lubricated adhesive wear
sliding machine contacts Influencing factors:
• Similarity of mating surfaces
Machine/components affected by adhesive wear: • Anti-scuff, EP, AW additives
• Pistons/cylinders • Swash plates • Film thickness (load, viscosity, speed)
• Gear contacts • Hypoid gears • Gear tooth size
• Cams & followers • Rolling element bearings
• Surface roughness
 Estimation of Adhesive Wear Volume
If it is assumed that the real contact is composed of n contact points of equal size and if a new
contact point is formed after the disappearance of the former one, the total number of contacts n
stays constant during sliding. By supposing a circular contact area of radius a, the possible volume of
wear particles generated after sliding the distance of 2a is assumed as the half sphere volume
described by 2πa3/3. Based on these assumptions, the possible wear volume V for n contact points
after sliding the distance L is given by:

Equation (1)

Since the normal contact pressure with plastic deformation is

almost equal to the hardness value H of the wearing material, the Equation (2)
total real contact area for n contact points n πa2 is expressed by:

By substituting Equation 2 into Equation 1, possible wear volume V

under normal load W after sliding distance L is given by: Equation (3)
 Estimation of Adhesive Wear Volume

In order to accommodate all these variables, a parameter Kad is introduced in

Equation 3 as a modifier, and the wear volume is described by:

Equation (4)

where Kad is called the wear coefficient for adhesive wear. It is a principal value for a friction
pair to describe its wear rate. The physical meaning of Kad is the wear volume fraction at the
plastic contact zone, and it is strongly affected by the material properties and the geometry
of the zone in compression and shearing.

In the adhesive wear of metals (Archard, 1953; Hirst, 1957), wear coefficient Kad varies
between 10–7 and 10–2 depending on the operating conditions and material properties. It
should be recognized that a wear coefficient Kad is not a constant value but is a possible
value in the range of adhesive wear rate.
 Typical Wear Coefficient

Table 1: Coefficient of Friction and Wear Coefficient of Rubbing Materials

Rubbing Materials Coefficient of Friction, Wear Coefficient,

(µ) (k)
Gold-gold 2.5 0.1-1
Copper-copper 1.2 0.01-0.1
Mild steel-mild steel 0.6 10-2
Brass-hard steel 0.3 10-3
Lead-steel (EN8) 0.2 2x10-5
PTFE-EN8 0.2 2x10-5
Stainless steel-hard steel 0.5 2x10-5
Tungsten carbide (TC)-TC 0.35 10-6
Polyethylene-EN8 0.5 10-8-10-7
 Adhesive Wear
Other names: Plowing, cutting, gouging, and broaching

Abrasive wear
occurs in sliding
contacts, usually
due to particle
contamination

Surface damage: Scratch marking,

scoring, furrows, grooves and polishing

Influencing factors:
• Surface hardness
Machine/components affected by abrasive wear: • Particle size/hardness
• Pistons/cylinders • Swash plates • Alignment
• Journal bearing • Gears • Film thickness (load, viscosity, speed)
• Cams • Rolling element bearings
• Particle concentration
 Estimation of Abrasive Wear Volume
The possible wear volume V, which is ploughed by
harder asperities after sliding a distance of L, is given by

Equation (5)

Since the normal contact pressure under plastic contact

can be assumed to be equal to the hardness value H of
the wearing material, real contact area of π(dtanθ)2/2 is
expressed by:
Equation (6)

By substituting (6) into Equation (5), possible wear volume V under normal load W and after
sliding distance L is given by:
Equation (7)
 Estimation of Abrasive Wear Volume

• Three different modes of abrasive wear observed by SEM: Cutting mode (a), steel pin on
brass plate; wedge-forming mode (b), steel pin on stainless steel plate; ploughing mode
(c), steel pin on brass plate. (From Hokkirigawa, K. and Kato, K. (1988),

Equation (8)

In order to accommodate all these meanings, a parameter Kab is introduced in Equation 6 as

a modifier, and the wear volume is described by:

Equation (9)
 Estimation of Abrasive Wear Volume

Equation (10)

• In the abrasive wear of metal (Rabinowicz,

1980), wear coefficient Kab varies between
10–4 and 10–1, depending on the contact
conditions and material parameters.
• By comparing Kab with Kad in adhesive wear,
it is clear that abrasive wear gives a relatively
large wear coefficient. That is why abrasive
wear is recognized as severe

Effect of hardness on the relative wear resistance of pure metals

 High Risk Contacts:
Rolling element bearings, gear
teeth at pitchline, cams and rollers.

Controlling Surface Fatigue:

• Increase film thickness
• Reduce surface roughness
• Maximize hardness
• Lower traction coefficient
Surface fatigue often begins by denting • High pressure-viscosity
due to hard or soft particles. This creates coefficient
a stress riser (berm). Repeat high loading • Avoid particle contamination
(stress reversals) on berm or particles • Keep oil dry
cases surface fatigue and eventually pits
form. This leads to larger pits, then spalls.
 Fatigue Wear in Rolling and Sliding
Contact under Elastic Contact
• In the case of the elastic contact generally observed in rolling elements, the main wear mechanism is
high-cycle fatigue fracture in the contact region. The critical number of rolling cycles Nf for the
generation of wear particles by spalling or flaking is given experimentally as follows (Lundberg and
Palmgren, 1952)
Equation (11)

• where W is the normal load and n is a constant which depends on the shape of the rolling element. In
the case of rolling bearings, the value of n is about 3.
• This empirical law has been widely accepted in the design of rolling bearings. Its basic premise is that
spalling or flaking can be treated as statistical fracture phenomena following the modified theory
(Weibull, 1930).
• Although the apparent practical contact pressure is not so high as to introduce yield in the contact
region, local yield is generated in the contact region because of the existence of microdefects in the
material.
• A single crystal has slip planes for preferential sliding under shear stress. A polycrystal has grain
boundaries, inclusions, and vacancies. Because of these inhomogeneities, the local stress in the contact
region exceeds the yield stress of the material even when the theoretical stress for the homogeneous
material does not exceed the yield stress.
 Fatigue Wear in Rolling and Sliding
Contact under Plastic Contact
• In this case, work hardening takes place in the yield region as a
result of repeated contact.
• This is shown in figure beside (Kayaba and Suzuki, 1976), where the
hardness peak is located about 130 μm beneath the surface, and the
value of maximum hardness increases with an increase in the
number of rolling cycles.
• The maximum hardness value of about 400 kgf/mm2 is reached
after about 2x 106 cycles, when pits start to appear on the surface.
• Repeated friction under elastic or elastoplastic contact causes the
accumulation of local plastic strain around some stress concentration
points, and cracks are generated after reaching a certain number of
frictional cycles.
• The mechanism of crack initiation and propagation in such a
situation is that of fatigue fracture, which is a kind of rate process
controlled by the inhomogeneity of the microstructure of a material.

The change in the hardness distribution beneath the surface

during the repeated rolling of steel (0.45C, 0.27 Si, 0.85 Mn).
 Fatigue Wear in Rolling and Sliding
Contact under Plastic Contact

Amount of
flow wear of
the surface
layer as a
function of
sliding cycles
under the
same sliding
conditions.

Flow wear process for steel during repeated sliding in

boundary lubrication. Plastic flow process of surface
layers in flow wear under boundary lubricated conditions.
Erosion wear is the loss of material that results
from repeated impact of small, solid particles;
entrained gas or liquid medium, impinging on a
surface at any significant velocity. Gas turbine surface eroded by solid particle
erosion wear

Factors influencing Erosion Wear:

• Particle (either shape, size, hardness, or velocity) Wind turbine blade eroded by solid particle
• Temperature erosion wear
Corrosion wear is surface damage
resulting from exposure to a reactive
environment (atmosphere, moisture
accumulation, bacteria, acids,
electrolytes, process chemicals or
lubricant by-products).

Corrosion rate (rust) typically doubles for every 10°C increase in temperature.

Techniques to reduce Corrosion Wear:

• Corrosion-resistant metallurgy.
• Fluid contamination control (heat, moisture, water, acids, bacteria).
• Protective barrier (coatings, surface treatments, etc.)
• Corrosion-controlling additives (rust inhibitors, metal deactivators, overbase additive, etc.)
 Machine/elements affected
Vaporous Cavitation Gaseous Cavitation by Cavitation Wear:
The process begins by the entrainment of As the noncompressible • Control valves
water vapor in the oil. Later, a pressure gas bubbles travel into • Pumps
increase causes the bubblesto collapse and high-pressure regions, • Actuators
produce a microjet that impinges upon they collapse, producing • Valve seats
and damages the surface. A 7-ounce glass intense pressures and • Spool lands
of water turns into 55 gallons of steam. damaging the surface. • Journal bearings

Pump valve plate damaged

by cavitation wear
Wear reducing methods
Wear Reducing Methods
Lubrication
Wear Protection Layers
Tool Coating Systems
Examples of Tool Coating Systems
Structures Tool Surfaces
Thank You