Chapter – 4

WEAR

S K Ghosh
Cylinder Liner Wear
• The engine cylinders are cast into a single block,
generally from cast iron.
• Pistons are generally made of cast iron. But,
Aluminum alloy is widely used for pistons for light
weight and better heat conduction.
• The piston rings, which form a movable seal, are
usually made of gray cast iron and some with chrome
plating or molybdenum fillings because of their
friction-reducing characteristics.
• The crankshaft is generally made of forged steel.
• A connecting rod is made of forged steel, cast steel,
or fabricated steel.
Figure: Schematic of the four-stroke operation cycle for an
• Cams and cam tappets, rocker arms, and camshaft IC engine.
materials are generally made of hardenable cast irons
or forged steels.
• Valves are made from forged alloy steel.
Cylinder Liner Wear
• The wear in cylinder liner is mainly because of the following :
a) Corrosion b) Abrasion c) Adhesion

Corrosion
• Due to ingress of moisture with sucked air
• Sulphur content leads to the formation of sulphuric acid.
• Combustion acids should be neutralized by cylinder oil (alkaline)

• Adhesion
• The various factors on which adhesion wear depends are:
• speed of the engine,
• temperature and pressure inside the combustion chamber,
• Insufficient lubricants and materials involved.
• local welding may occur between the cylinder liner and piston rings.
• lead to the formation of abrasive particle.
Abrasion

• The abrasive particle which are produced due to adhesion is the major cause of abrasive wear.
• Another reason of abrasive wear is the combustion products i.e., ash formation and presence of
catalytic fins ( Al, Si compounds).
• These compounds are always present in the oil.
• ISO standards permit upto 80ppm
• but the damage of the engine parts caused due to concentration of 15-20ppm.

Regulatory Methods

• By avoiding ingress of water vapor and moisture with sucked air

• By maintaining proper water jacket temperature
• By maintaining the correct quantity and grade of lubricating oil
Cutting tool wear

• Tool wear usually takes place on the face

or the flank of a cutting tool.
• Crater wear results from a chip moving
across the face of the tool.
• Flank wear results from the rubbing
action on the freshly formed surface of
the job.
• The extent and location of crater wear are Figure: Schematic of a partially formed chip and crater (or
considerably affected by the formation of face) and flank wear in cutting tools.
a built-up edge composed of highly
strained and hardened fragments of
material.
• Tool wear occurs by adhesive, abrasive,
chemical (by thermal diffusion), and
electrochemical wear.
Cutting tool wear

• The life of a cutting tool is judged by one of the following criteria:

• Complete failure of the tool
• Cutting time for material removal to a predetermined crater depth or flank-wear land width; and
• Loss of workpiece dimensional tolerance and degradation of surface finish.

• The most important properties of a cutting tool material are

• Hardness, Toughness, chemical stability
• Other relevant properties are
• elastic modulus, rupture strength, compressive strength, and coefficient of thermal expansion.
Cutting tool wear
• The various methods of measuring tool wear are :
a) Loss of material in terms of volume or weight
b) Wear scar diameter measurement of optical microscope
c) Qualitative analysis of tool using SEM

• In Taylors tool life equation: VTn = C

• tool life mainly depends upon the cutting velocity
• but in reality, the tool life depends upon different machining parameters like depth of cut, feed etc.

஼ᇱ
• The modified Taylors tool life equation: T =
୚ೣ ௙೤ ௗ౰

• Where, V is cutting velocity; T is tool life; f is feed; d is depth of cut; C, C´, x, y, z are constants
Cutting Fluids
• A cutting tool generates high temperatures by the deformation of metal and by friction between the chip and the
tool.
• The temperature rise typically ranges from 350 to 1000°C or even higher.
• The primary function of any cutting fluid is to dissipate the frictional heat away to keep the interface cool,
especially in high-speed cutting operations.
• The other function is to provide lubrication.
• For efficient cooling, the heat transfer properties of the cutting fluid should be good.
• Other considerations associated with the cutting fluid include lubricity, corrosion prevention, and health and safety
hazards.
• Cutting fluids contain mineral oils, fatty oils, or a combination of these, mixtures of mineral oil and emulsifiers
(soluble oils) added to water or synthetic fluids
Grinding
• Grinding is a versatile process that is used to
manufacture parts that require a good surface finish
(on the order of 1 μm) and dimensional accuracy.
• Grinding is performed with small, extremely hard
abrasive particles (grits) usually bonded together in
the form of a wheel in the presence of a cutting fluid.
• The wheel can be either vitrified or resin or metal
bonded.
Figure: Schematics of the surface grinding process.
• The most frequently used abrasives are MgO, SiO2,
Al2O3, SiC, cubic boron nitride (CBN), and
diamond.
Lapping
• Lapping (finishing or polishing) is a fine finishing
process and is usually the last stage in the finishing of a
component.
• It is used to produce surfaces of extremely good finish
(5–100 nm peak to valley) and flatness.
• Free Abrasive Lapping is when abrasive slurry is
applied directly to a lapping plate. This is perhaps the
most accurate method for producing specimens and
causes the least amount of damage.
Figure: Schematics of the lapping process.
• The lap is usually made of soft materials such as bonze,
tin, copper, or cast iron.

• The abrasive is suspended in a liquid carrier (e.g., ethylene glycol or a lubricant such as olive oil.
• Common abrasives used in lapping are Cr2O3, Al2O3, SiC, and diamond of various grit sizes ranging from about 0.05
μm to several μm.
• Fixed Abrasive Lapping is when an abrasive particle in bonded to a substrate as with abrasive lapping pads. The
lapping tape is rubbed against the workpiece.
Wear Reduction
• The most common technique is to use wear resistant materials or simply by changing the material
properties, e.g. by hardening.
• Oil and grease are commonly used to prevent wear by keeping the surfaces apart from each other.
• A third method is to have proper design for reduced wear.
• For instance a pipe can be given a large diameter that reduces the water velocity, and
• a pump can be designed to avoid entrapped particles and reduce wear.
• Running the machine at optimum variable of load, speed, temperature etc.
• Good maintenance of components;
• Considerable improvement in wear resistance can be achieved when dissimilar metals are coupled,
and this is especially true for steels coupled with silicon bronze and Stellite alloys.
• Improvement in wear resistance can be achieved by altering the surface characteristics, such as by
surface treatment or by adding a coating.
Wear of metals and alloys
• The clean metals and alloys in a solid contact exhibit high adhesion consequently high friction and wear.
• The wear rate of contacting metallic surfaces cleaned in a high vacuum can be very high.
• The slightest contamination mitigates contact or forms chemical films which reduce adhesion, resulting in the
reduction of friction and wear.
• In the case of soft metals, such as Pb and Sn, the contact area is large, even at low loads, which results in high wear
rates.
• Hexagonal metals such as Co and Mg as well as other non-hexagonal metals such as Mo and Cr exhibit low friction
and wear;
• Consequently Co, Mo, and Cr are common alloying elements in steels to reduce friction, wear and corrosion.
• Lead-based white metals (babbitts), brass, bronze, and cast iron generally exhibit relatively low friction and wear in
dry and lubricated conditions.
• In general, wear for alloys tends to be lower than that for pure components.
Factors affecting mild and severe wear
Mild wear takes place under four distinct sets of conditions :
• Low contact pressures and low sliding velocities: Thin ductile oxide film is formed which prevents direct metal–
metal contact and is not ruptured at light loads.
• At higher velocities: A thicker and more brittle oxide film is continuously generated by high interface temperatures.
• At higher loads: A hard surface layer (martensite) formed on carbon–steel surfaces because of localized frictional
heating followed by rapid quenching as the friction heat is dissipated. The higher interface temperatures also
produce a thicker film of oxide, supported by the hardened substrate.
• At yet higher sliding velocities, the increased interface temperature produces thick films. Insulating oxide films
reduce the heat flow from the surface to the underlying conducting substrate resulting in severe oxidation.

Severe wear occurs under conditions in which direct metal–metal contacts occur. Severe wear takes place under three
distinct sets of conditions :
• At high contact pressures and low sliding velocities, contact pressures are high enough to rupture the thin oxide
layer which leads to direct metal–metal contact.
• At moderate contact pressures and sliding velocities, the load is high enough to penetrate the thicker but brittle
oxide films generated.
• At high contact pressures and sliding velocities, the sliding conditions are so severe that local temperatures reach
the melting point of the steel, resulting in a liquid film in contact which leads to severe wear.