Engine Tribology

Module code ME 824

Dr Riaz A Mufti
(B.Sc, M.Sc Eng (UK), PhD (UK), CEng (UK), MIMechE (UK), P.E (PEC))

Lecture 2

Wear & Friction

 Engine Tribology

TOPICS
A. Wear
B. Friction

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Wear
Definition

Wear is the progressive loss of a

substance from the operating surface of
a body occurring as a result of relative
motion at the surface.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Wear
• Wear is the removal of the material from the surface of a solid
body as a result of mechanical action of the counter body.
• Wear of Engine bearing is the removal of the bearing material from
its surface caused by sliding friction between the bearing & the
crankshaft.
• Wear may combine effects of various physical & chemical
processes during the friction between two counteracting materials:
micro-cutting, micro-ploughing, cracking, melting, chemical
interaction.

The mechanism of wear are:

• Abrasive wear
• Adhesive wear
• Fatigue wear
• Corrosive wear
• Erosive wear
• Cavitation wear
Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Abrasive wear
• Abrasive wear occurs when a harder
material is rubbing against a softer
material.
• If there are only two rubbing parts
involved in the friction process the
wear is called two body wear.
• In this case the wear of the softer
material is caused by the asperities
on the harder surface.
• If the wear is caused by a harder
particle(grit) trapped between the
rubbing surfaces it is called three
body wear. The particle may be
either free or partially embedded into
one of the mating materials.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Adhesive Wear
• Adhesion wear is a result of micro-junctions caused by welding between the
opposing asperities on the rubbing surfaces of the counter bodies.
• The load applied to the contacting asperities is so high that they deform &
adhere to each other forming micro-joints.
• The motion of the rubbing counter bodies result in rupture of the micro-
joints. The welded asperity ruptures in the non-deformed regions.
• Thus some of the material is transformed to its counter bodies. This effect is
called scuffing or galling.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Adhesive Wear
The factors decreasing adhesive wear are:
• Lower load
• Harder rubbing materials.
• Presence of solid lubricants.
• Presence of a lubrication oil
• Anti-wear additives in oil.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Fatigue Wear
• Fatigue wear of the material is caused by a cycling
loading during friction.
• Fatigue occurs if the applied load is higher than the
fatigue strength of the material.
• Fatigue cracks start at the material surface &
spread to the subsurface regions.
• The cracks may connect to each other resulting in
separation & delamination of the material pieces.
• One of the type of the fatigue wear is fretting wear
caused by cycling sliding of two surfaces across
each other with a small amplitude (oscillating).
The friction force produces altering compression-
tension stresses, which result in surface fatigue.
• Fatigue of overlay of an engine bearing may result
in the propagation of the cracks up to the
intermediate layers & total removal of the over lay.
Engine tappet
Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Corrosive wear
• Wear may be accelerated by corrosion (oxidation) of the rubbing
surfaces.
• Increased temperature & removal of the protecting oxide films
from the surface during the friction promote the oxidation process.
• Friction provides continuous removal of the oxide film followed by
continuous formation of new oxide film.
• Hard oxide particles removed from the surface & trapped between
the sliding/rolling surfaces additionally increase the wear rate by
three body abrasive wear mechanism.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Erosive Wear
• Erosive wear is caused by the impact of solid or liquid against the surface
of an object.
• Erosive wear occurs in a wide variety of machinery & typical examples
are the damage to gas turbine blades when an aircraft flies through dust
clouds.

Steam turbine blade Dr Riaz A Mufti

Engine Tribology
Erosive Wear
Mechanism:
• Erosive wear involves several wear mechanism which are largely
controlled by the particle material, the angle of impingement, the impact
velocity & the particle size.
• The term ‘erosive wear’ refers to an unspecified number of wear
mechanism which occur when relatively small particles impact against
mechanical components.
• The angle of impingement is the angle between the eroded surface & the
trajectory of the particle immediately before impact.
• A low angle of impingement favors wear processes similar to abrasion
because the particle tend to track across the worn surface after impact.
• A high angle of impingement causes wear mechanisms which are typical
of fatique.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Erosive Wear

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Engine Tribology
Cavitation Wear
• Cavitation wear is known to damage equipment such as propellers
or turbine blades operating in wet steam, & valve seats.
• Wear progresses by the formation of a series of holes or pits in the
surface exposed to cavitation.
• The entire machine component can be destroyed by this process.
• Operation of equipment e.g. propellers, is often limited by severe
vibration caused by cavitation damage.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Mechanism of Cavitation Wear:-
• The characteristics feature of cavitation is the cyclic formation &
collapse of bubbles on a solid surface in contact with a fluid.
• Bubble formation is caused by the release of dissolved gas from the
liquid where it sustains a near-zero or negative pressure.
• Negative pressure are likely to occur when flow of liquid enters a
diverging geometry, i.e., emerging from a small diameter pipe to a
large diameter pipe.
• The ideal method of preventing cavitation is to avoid negative
pressures close to surfaces, but in practice this is usually impossible.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
• When a bubble collapses on a surface the liquid adjacent to the
bubble is at first accelerated & then sharply decelerated as it collides
with the surface.
• The collision between liquid & solid generates large stresses which
can damage the solid.
• Transient pressures as high as 1.5[Gpa] are possible.
• The process of bubble collapse together with experimental evidence
of a hole formed in a metal surface by bubble collapse are shown in
fig (on next slide)

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
What Is Friction?

Friction is the resisting force tangential to the common

boundary when, under the action of an external force,
one body moves or tends to move relative to the other.

Types of friction:

• Static friction
• Kinetic friction
• Fluid friction
• Rolling friction

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Types of Friction
Static Friction

Static friction comes into play when a body is forced to move along a surface but movement
does not start. The magnitude of static friction remains equal to the applied external force
and the direction is always opposite to the direction of motion. The magnitude of static
friction depends upon the coefficient of static friction and the normal force.

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Engine Tribology
Coefficient of Friciton

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Types of Friction

Kinetic Friction:
Kinetic friction is the force between two objects that are moving relative to each
other. Friction between solid objects is often referred to as dry friction or sliding
friction and between a solid and a gas or liquid as fluid friction. Both of these types of
friction are called kinetic friction.

Kinetic Friction Formula :

Kinetic Friction:
Kinetic Friction Coefficient:
where,
μk = Kinetic Friction Coefficient,
N = Normal Force.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Types of Friction
Rolling Friction

Rolling frictional force is a force that slows down the motion of a rolling object. Basically it
is a combination of various types of frictional forces at point of contact of wheel and
ground or surface. When a hard object moves along a hard surface then static and
molecular friction force retards its motion. When soft object moves over a hard surface
then its distortion makes it slow down.
The "rolling resistance coefficient", is defined by the
following equation:
F=Crr N

where
F is the rolling resistance force
Crr is the dimensionless rolling resistance coefficient
or coefficient of rolling friction.
N is the normal force, the force perpendicular to the
surface on which the wheel is rolling.
Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
What Is Friction?
Fluid Friction

When a body moves in a fluid or in air then there exists a resistive force which slows down
the motion of the body, known as fluid frictional force. A freely falling skydiver feels a drag
force due to air which acts in the upward direction or in a direction opposite to skydiver’s
motion. The magnitude of this drag force increases with increase in the downward velocity
of skydiver. At a particular point of time the value of this drag force becomes equal to the
driving force and skydiver falls with a constant velocity.

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology
Friction (High or Low)

Low friction required: High Friction required:

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Engine Tribology
Thank you
End of Lecture

Dr Riaz A Mufti
Engine Tribology