Sliding and Adhesive Wear

K.C. Ludema, University of Michigan

Introduction

SLIDING AND ADHESIVE WEAR refer to a type of wear generated by the sliding of one solid surface along
another

surface. Erosion, cavitation, rolling contact, abrasion, oxidative wear, fretting, and corrosion are
traditionally excluded

from the class of "sliding" wear problems even though some sliding (slip) may occur in some of these
types of wear.

Apparently, sliding wear is a category of wear that is "left over" when all other types of wear are
identified under separate

headings.

Adhesive wear is as ambiguously defined as is sliding wear, though the two are not strictly synonymous.
Adhesive wear

denotes a wearing action in which no specific agency can be identified as the cause of the wear.
Adhesion has been

confirmed in the 1930s to be a major contributor to sliding resistance (friction) and was inferred in
mechanics at least to
be operative in wear as well. Thus, if no abrasive substances are found, if the amplitude of sliding is
greater than that in

fretting, and if the rate of material loss is not governed by the principles of oxidation, and so on,
adhesive wear is said to

occur.

Adhesion is most clearly demonstrated in sliding systems when, for example, a shaft seizes in a bearing.
Again, adhesion

is implicated in galling and scuffing (which some researchers classify as surface damage rather than
wear) even when no

material is lost from the system. From these examples, it can be seen that adhesion is not the cause of
wear, but only the

consequence of contact. Wearing occurs when interfaces in contact are made to slide and the locally
adhered regions must

separate. This separation may occur by one or two of the failure modes of solids, resulting in a very wide
range of wear

rate.

The purpose in defining and studying specific wear modes is to find ways to prolong the wear life of
sliding systems.
Each mode of wear can best be resisted by the proper choice of material, lubricant, and method of
operation.

Unfortunately, the making of slow-wearing products requires considerable experience, because there
are very few

fundamental principles in friction and wear to use in the design process.

Sliding Surface

The focus of this section is the case of long-distance sliding of nominally clean and dry surfaces in the
general

atmosphere of technology. Such surfaces are far from perfectly clean, and even if they were at one time
very clean,

inevitably they become "contaminated" by the atmosphere around them. We may thus define "standard
conditions" for

sliding, for the three classes of materials (metals, polymers, and ceramics) as follows:

• Metals will usually be covered with a film of oxide, which is covered by a second film of adsorbed

gases and hydrocarbons (oils)

• Polymer surfaces may contain absorbed water and "bloomed" plasticizers, and will likely be covered
with mold release agents, adsorbed gases, and oils

• Ceramic materials will also be covered with adsorbed gases and oils; in addition, the nonoxide
ceramics

may oxidize

The thickness of the adsorbed layers and coatings is of the order of 10 nm (100 ). Such thin films are not
discernible by

optical means or by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The presence of thin films must
therefore be

verified by sophisticated chemical analytical instruments, or taken on faith. These films are very
important because they

intervene in the bonding or adhesion between the substrate materials. Variations in the thickness and
properties of these

films is one major reason for the very wide range of friction data reported for all materials