TRIBOLOGY

WEAR
WEAR- Introduction

• Wear is the surface damage or removal of material from one

or both of two solid surfaces in a sliding, rolling, or impact
motion relative to one another.

• In most cases, wear occurs through surface interactions at

asperities.

• During relative motion, first, material on the

contacting surface may be displaced, but little or no
material is actually lost.

• Later, material may be removed from a surface and

may result in the transfer to the mating surface or
may break loose as a wear particle.
WEAR- Introduction

• The definition of wear is generally based on the loss of

material, but it should be emphasized that damage due to
material displacement on a given body (observed using
microscopy), with no net change in weight or volume, also
constitutes wear.

• Wear, as friction, is not a material property, it is a

system response because it depends on operating
conditions.

• High-friction interfaces exhibit high wear rates, but it is not

always true;
WEAR- Introduction

• Interfaces with solid lubricants and polymers exhibit

relatively low friction and relatively high wear, whereas
ceramics exhibit moderate friction but extremely low wear.

Types of Wear Mechanism:

• Wear occurs by mechanical and/or chemical means and is

generally accelerated by frictional heating (or thermal
means).

• Wear includes six principal, quite distinct phenomena that

have only one thing in common: the removal of solid
material from rubbing surfaces
WEAR- Introduction

Types of Wear Mechanism:

• ADHESIVE

• ABRASIVE

• FATIGUE

• IMPACT BY EROSION AND PERCUSSION

• CHEMICAL (OR CORROSIVE)

• ELECTRICAL-ARC-INDUCED WEAR
WEAR- ADHESIVE

• Adhesive wear occurs when two nominally flat solid bodies

are in sliding contact, whether lubricated or not.

• Adhesion (or bonding) occurs at the asperity contacts at the

interface, and these contacts are sheared by sliding, which
may result in the detachment of a fragment from one
surface and attachment to the other surface.

• As the sliding continues, the transferred fragments may

come off the surface on which they are transferred and be
transferred back to the original surface, or else form loose
wear particles.
WEAR- ADHESIVE

• Several mechanisms have been proposed for the

detachment of a fragment of a material.

• In one mechanism (Archard’s theory, 1953) shearing can

occur at the original interface or in the weakest region in
one of the two bodies depending on the relative magnitude
of interfacial adhesion strength and the breaking strength.

• In most cases, interfacial adhesion strength is expected to

be small as compared to the breaking strength of
surrounding local regions.
WEAR- ADHESIVE

• In a small fraction of contacts, break may occur in one of

the two bodies and a small fragment (the shaded region)
may become attached to the other surface.

• These transfer fragments are irregular and blocky shaped.

WEAR- ADHESIVE

• In another mechanism: Detachment of a wear fragment

occurs due to plastic shearing of successive layers of an
asperity.

• The detached fragment may be transferred to the matting

surface due to adhesion.

• Further, sliding causes formation of more fragments.

• The adherence of fragments to the surfaces implies strong

bond where as the formation of final loose particles implies
a weak bond.

• This is because of chemical changes in the fragment due to

oxidation that may reduces the adhesive strength.
WEAR- ADHESIVE

• A second mechanism responsible for the formation of loose

particles involves the residual elastic energy of adherent
fragments.

• When sandwiched between two surfaces, the fragment is

heavily stressed.

• As the other surface moves on, only residual elastic stresses

remain.

• If the elastic energy is larger than the adhesive energy, a

fragment breaks loose as a wear particle.
WEAR- ADHESIVE

• During sliding, surface asperities undergo plastic

deformation and/or fracture.

SEM micrograph of 303 stainless steel shaft surface after adhesive wear
under unlubricated conditions.
WEAR- ADHESIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Based on experimental data of various unlubricated material

pairs:

• The amount of wear is generally proportional to the applied

load W and sliding distance x and generally inversely
proportional to the hardness H of the surface being worn
away. That is, the volume of wear being worn away (Holm,
1946) is

Wear coefficient
(depends upon material and
cleanliness)
WEAR- ADHESIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Archard (1953) explained it theoretically:

• Consider W as applied load on surfaces,

• Assume that during an asperity interaction, the asperities

deform plastically there is a definite probability that a wear
particle will be produced.

• An average radius of a.
WEAR- ADHESIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Archard (1953) explained it theoretically:

• Maximum normal load for yielding:

Mean contact pressure

Radius
• Volume of wear asperity:

• Sliding distance :

• Hence, Archard’s Adhesive wear equation

WEAR- ADHESIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Archard (1953) Adhesive Equation:

• This equation can also be used to calculate the amount of

wear of harder and softer surface by using its hardness.

• The term k is usually interpreted as the probability that

transfer of a material fragment occurs or a wear particle is
formed to a given asperity encounter.

• k ranges typically from 10−8 to 10−4 for mild wear and from
10−4 to 10−2 for severe wear.
WEAR- ADHESIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• The flat face of a brass annulus having an outside diameter

of 20 mm and an inside diameter of 10 mm is placed on a
flat carbon steel plate under a normal load of 10 N and
rotates about its axis at 100 rpm for 100 h. As a result of
wear during the test, the mass losses of the brass and steel
are 20 mg and 1 mg, respectively. Calculate the wear
coefficients and wear depths for the bronze and the steel.
(Hardness of steel = 2.5 GPa, density of steel = 7.8 g/cc,
hardness of brass = 0.8 GPa, and density of brass = 8.5
g/cc.)
WEAR- ABRASIVE

• Abrasive wear occurs when asperities of a rough, hard

surface or hard particles slide on a softer surface and
damage the interface by plastic deformation or fracture.

• For ductile materials with high fracture toughness (e.g.,

metals and alloys), hard asperities or hard particles result in
the plastic flow of the softer material.

• For brittle materials with low fracture toughness, wear

occurs by brittle fracture.
WEAR- ABRASIVE

• Two situations of abrasive wear:

WEAR- ABRASIVE (By Plastic Deformation)

• Material removal from a surface via plastic deformation

during abrasion can occur by several deformation modes
which include plowing, wedge formation and cutting.
WEAR- ABRASIVE (By Plastic Deformation)

• In the plowing (also called ridge formation) process,

material is displaced from a groove to the sides without the
removal of material.

• Plowing results in a series of grooves as a result of the

plastic flow of the softer material. Like Indium and Lead.

• In the wedge formation type of abrasive wear, only some of

the material displaced from the groove is displaced to the
sides and the remaining material shows up as a wedge.

• In the cutting form of abrasive wear, significant removal of

material take place.
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Θ = attack angle; 90- Θ = semi attack angle; d= depth;

2a=width;

• Material yielded under the normal load dW;

WEAR- ABRASIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Θ = attack angle; 90- Θ = semi attack angle; d= depth;

2a=width;
• The volume displaced in a distance x is;

• So, it can be expressed as:

Average of all
Conical asperities
• Total volume of displaced material:

• Asperity heights and shapes and any material build-up

ahead of the asperities are not taken into account.
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• Θ = attack angle; 90- Θ = semi attack angle; d= depth;

2a=width;

• An equation of the form similar to Archard’s equation for

adhesive wear is found to cover a wide range of abrasive
situations, and is
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Quantitative Expression)

• A hard steel surface consisting of an array of conical

asperities of an average semi-angle of 60◦ slides on a soft
lead surface (H = 75 MPa) under a load of 10 N. Calculate
the volume of lead displaced in unit slid distance. Given that
the volume of lead material removed is 10−6 m3 for a sliding
distance of 1 km, calculate the wear coefficient of lead.
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Experimental Evidence)

• The wear rate in two-body abrasion is generally inversely

proportional to the hardness and proportional to the normal
load and sliding distance for many pure metals.
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Wear by Fracture)

• In brittle material, abrasive wear occurs by brittle fracture.

• At low loads, sharp asperity contact causes only plastic

deformation resulting in wear.

• Above the threshold load, brittle fracture occurs and wear

takes place by lateral cracking.

• Lets consider an asperity with sharp geometry on a flat

surface of a brittle solid.
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Wear by Fracture)
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Wear by Fracture)

• The threshold load is proportional to (Kc/H)3 Kc .

• H/Kc is known as index of brittleness and Kc is known as

fracture toughness (resistance to fracture).

• The lateral crack length c can be calculated by:

Elastic Modulus

Material dependent
constant

• The depth d of lateral crack can be calculated by:

Material dependent
constant
WEAR- ABRASIVE (Wear by Fracture)

• If N is the number of asperities.

• the volume of wear per unit sliding distance of the interface

is :

Material dependent
constant

• does not vary by much for different brittle materials.

• Wear rate is inversely proportional to the (fracture

toughness)1/2 and (hardness)5/8.

• Wear rate is proportional to (normal load)9/8.

• wear equation is not independent of load.

WEAR- ABRASIVE (Wear by Fracture)
WEAR- FATIGUE

• Fatigue wear is a type of wear where a number of cycles is

needed to generate debris.

• The repeated loading and unloading cycles to which the

materials are exposed may induce the formation of
subsurface or surface cracks, which eventually, after a
critical number of cycles, will result in the breakup of the
surface with the formation of large fragments, leaving large
pits in the surface, also known as pitting.

• In fatigue wear, volume of wear material is not significant,

Number of revolutions or cycles before failure is important.
WEAR- FATIGUE

• Unlike Adhesive and Abrasive wear mechanism where direct

contacts or via abrasives between surfaces are necessary for
wear, fatigue wear may happens even if surfaces are
separated by lubrication film.

• Due to very high stress on lubricating film fatigue wear can

be operative.
WEAR- FATIGUE

• In rolling contact pair, the maximum compressive stresses

occur at the surface, but the maximum shear stresses occur
some distance below the surface.

• This is because, the

direction of shear stress
changes its sign.
WEAR- FATIGUE

• Fatigue failure is dependent on the amplitude of the

reversed shear stresses, the interface lubrication conditions,
and the fatigue properties of the rolling materials.

• When a fatigue crack develops, it occurs below the surface,

until a region of metal is separated to some extent from the
base metal by the crack and ultimately becomes detached
and spalls out.

• By the time cracks grow large enough to emerge at the

surface and produce wear particles, these particles may
become large spalls or flakes.
WEAR- FATIGUE

• The life of rolling element bearings (normally referred to as

L10 or B10) in millions of revolutions for 90% of the bearing
population is determined from
Basic load

Thrust, radial load

• P = 3 (ball bearing) and 3.33 (roller bearing)
WEAR- FATIGUE (Sliding Contact)

• If asperities are in contact without any adhesion and abrasion

wear and can pass each other, leaving one or both asperities
plastically deformed from the contact stresses.
• As the surface and subsurface deformation continues, cracks
are nucleated at and below the surface.
• Once the cracks are present further loading and deformation
cause cracks to extend and propagate.
• After a critical number of contacts, an asperity fails due to
fatigue, producing a wear fragment.
• In a sliding contact, friction is generally high compared to a
rolling contact, and the maximum shear stress occurs at
the surface which leads to surface fatigue.
WEAR- FATIGUE (Static)

• Static fatigue describes the fracture happening at a stress

level less than the value required to cause ordinary tensile
fracture.

• Static fatigue results from a stress-dependent chemical

reaction between water vapor and the surface of the
ceramic.

• The rate of reaction depends on the state of stress at the

surface and the environment.

• The stresses (residual stresses produced during machining

and stresses introduced during static or dynamic contact) at
the crack tip control the rate of crack growth.
WEAR- FATIGUE (Static)

• The kinetics of fluid flow from the environment also control

the rate of rupture of the crack-tip bonds.

• For a start, the gas molecules do not have direct access to

the crack-tip bonds.

• As the gas molecules migrate along the crack interface, a

point will be reached where collisions with the walls become
more frequent than with other gas molecules.

• The gas then enters a zone of free molecular flow within

which diffused molecular scattering at the walls may
considerably reduce the flow rate.
WEAR- FATIGUE (Static)

• For example, crack growth of silica glass in the presence of

a water environment. The basic crack-tip reaction is as
follows:

• Water molecule hydrolyzes a siloxane bridging bond at the

crack tip to form two terminal silane groups.

• Similar effect has also been seen in Sapphire.

• Wear due to static fatigue can be reduced with lower

residual stresses and a lesser degree of micro-cracking of
the surface.
WEAR- IMPACT

• The wear of a solid surface that is due to a repetitive

exposure to dynamic contact by another body.

• Two broad types of wear phenomena belong under this

heading: erosive and percussive wear.

• Erosion can occur by jets and streams of solid particles,

liquid droplets, and implosion of bubbles formed in the fluid.

• Percussion occurs from repetitive solid body impacts.

Repeated impacts result in progressive loss of solid material.
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• Solid particle erosion occurs by impingement of solid

particles.
• It is a form of abrasion that is generally treated rather
differently because the contact stress arises from the kinetic
energy of particles flowing in an air or liquid stream as it
encounters a surface.
• The particle velocity and impact angle combined with the
size of the abrasive give a measure of the kinetic energy of
the impinging particles, that is, of the square of the velocity.
• erosive wear occurs by plastic deformation and/or brittle
fracture, dependent upon material being eroded away and
upon operating parameters.
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• Wear rate dependence on the impact angle for ductile and

brittle materials is different.
• Ductile materials will undergo
wear by a process of plastic
deformation in which the
material is removed by the
displacing or cutting action.
• In a brittle material, material will
be removed by the formation
and intersection of cracks that
radiate out from the point of
impact of the eroded particle
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• The shape of the abrasive particles affects that pattern of

plastic deformation in brittle material and severity of cracks
in ductile material.

• Sharper particles would lead to more localized deformation

and consequently wear, as compared to the more rounded
particles.
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• Consider erosion, involving plastic deformation, by a single

hard particle striking a softer surface at normal incidence.

• Particle does not deform and the deformation of the surface

is perfectly plastic with a constant indentation pressure
(hardness), H.
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• Consider erosion, involving plastic deformation, by a single

hard particle striking a softer surface at normal incidence.

• Particle does not deform and the deformation of the surface

is perfectly plastic with a constant indentation pressure
(hardness), H.

• At time t after initial contact, the particle, of mass dm with

an initial velocity V, indents the surface to a depth x such
that cross-sectional area of the indent impression is A(x),
which is dependent upon the shape of the particle.
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• The equation of motion:

• If the particle comes to rest at a depth d after time t0, the

work done by the retarding force is equal to the initial
kinetic energy of the particle
WEAR- IMPACT (Erosion)

• Let only K proportion of material is converted into debris:

• The erosion wear equation is normally written in terms of

dimensionless erosion ratio (E)
Mass of removed material
E=
Mass of erosive particle striking the surface

Density of eroded material

• It does not include the effect of the impact angle and the shape and
size of particles. k depends on the impact angle and the shape and
size of particles. The value of k typically ranges from 10−5 to 10−1.
WEAR- IMPACT (Percussion)

• Percussion is a repetitive solid body impact, such as

experienced by print hammers in high speed
electromechanical applications.

• In most practical machine applications, the impact is

associated with sliding; that is, the relative approach of the
contacting surfaces has both normal and tangential
components known as compound impact.

• Percussive wear occurs by hybrid wear mechanisms which

combines several of the following mechanisms: adhesive,
abrasive, surface fatigue, fracture, and tribochemical wear.
WEAR- IMPACT (Calculation of wear volume)

• A slug of radius R normally directed at a speed V against a

tangentially moving platen with a speed u.

• After a time ts (called the slipping time), the slug comes up to

the horizontal speed u of the platen.

• They then travel together in the horizontal direction for the rest
of the impact duration ti , after which the two bodies separate.
WEAR- IMPACT (Calculation of wear volume)

• The Hertz impact force during the impact duration is Shown

Impact Force Cycle

WEAR- IMPACT (Calculation of wear volume)

• To simplify contact analysis, we can assume the Hertz

impact force, F(t), to have a sinusoidal distribution:

(1)

• The peak force F0 depends on geometrical, material, and

normal impact parameters.

• For an elastic contact of a slug on an infinitely massive flat

platten with an infinitely high modulus of elasticity

(2)
WEAR- IMPACT (Calculation of wear volume)

• From momentum equation:

(3)

• From eq. 1 and 3.

• Where, (slip factor)

• We apply the impact wear analysis to a print head striking

on a paper covering the platen.

• Abrasive wear of the print head occurs during the slipping

time.
WEAR- IMPACT (Calculation of wear volume)

• The abraded volume v with respect to the sliding distance x of

the print head relative to the paper

• Therefore, the total wear volume per impact cycle is

• Once the wear volume per cycle has been determined, the total
wear after N cycles can be predicted by multiplying the unit
wear by N cycles.
WEAR- CHEMICAL (Corrosive)

• Chemical or corrosive wear occurs when sliding takes place

in a corrosive environment.
WEAR- CHEMICAL (Corrosive)

• Corrosive wear is a surface damage resulting from exposure

to reactive environment like atmosphere, moisture,
bacteria, acids, electrolyte, process chemicals etc.
• In air, the most dominant corrosive medium is oxygen.
Therefore chemical wear in air is generally called oxidative
wear.
• In the absence of sliding, the chemical products of the
corrosion (e.g., oxides) would form a film typically less than
a micrometer thick on the surfaces, which would tend to
slow down or even arrest the corrosion, but the sliding
action wears the chemical film away, so that the chemical
attack can continue.
WEAR- CHEMICAL (Corrosive)

• Thus, chemical wear requires both chemical reaction

(corrosion) and rubbing.

• Machinery operating in an industrial environment or near

the coast generally produces chemical products (i.e., it
corrodes) more rapidly than when operating in a clean
environment.

• Chemical wear is important in a number of industries, such

as mining, mineral processing, chemical processing, and
slurry handling.
WEAR- CHEMICAL (Corrosive)

• Corrosion can occur because of the chemical or

electrochemical interaction of the interface with the
environment.

• Chemical corrosion occurs in a highly corrosive environment

and in high-temperature and high-humidity environments.

• Electrochemical corrosion is a chemical reaction

accompanied by the passage of an electric current, and for
this to occur, a potential difference must exist between two
regions.
WEAR- CHEMICAL (Corrosive)

• Oxides of most metals have volumes significantly different

from those of their parent metals.

• So oxide formation causes the development of stresses in

the oxide which increases the film thickness.

• At some critical film thickness the oxide film can fail either
by blistering or by cracking.

• Blistering occurs when stress of film exceeds the strength of

adhesive bond.

• Cracking occurs when oxide fails in tension.

WEAR- ELECTRICAL-ARC-INDUCED

• When dielectric property of air breaks in presence of high

potential, results arcing.

• During arcing, a relatively high-power density (on the order

of 1 kW/mm2) occurs over a very short period of time (on
the order of 100 μs).

• Arcing produces heating caused by the Joule effect due to

the high power density and by ion bombardment from the
plasma above the surface.

• This heating results in considerable melting and subsequent

resolidification, corrosion, hardness changes, and other
phase changes, and even in the direct ablation of material.
WEAR- ELECTRICAL-ARC-INDUCED

• Arcing causes large craters, and any sliding or oscillation

after an arc either shears or fractures the lips, leading to
three-body abrasion, corrosion, surface fatigue.

• Arcing can thus initiate several modes of wear resulting in

catastrophic failures in electrical machinery.
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