WEAR

• Classification

• Mechanism of wear

• Delamination theory

• Debris analysis

• Testing methods and standards

• Undesirable removal of material from operating solid surface is known as wear

• There are two definitions

1. Zero wear

2. Measurable wear

• Zero wear : Removal of material which causes polishing of material surfaces may be known as "Zero wear". It may increase
performance. It is for betterment, so it is not undesirable.

• Zero wear is basically a polishing process in which the asperities of the contacting surfaces are gradually worn of until a
very fine, smooth surface develops. Generally, “polishing-in” wear is desirable for better life of tribo-pair.

• Measurable wear : Removal of material from surface that increases vibration; noise or surface roughness may be treated as
"Measureable wear". Often we measure wear in volume/mass reduction. Undesirable removal of material occurs in
measurable wear.
• Measurable wear refers to a loss of material which must be counted to estimate the life of tribo-pair. The extent of
measurable wear depends on the lubrication regime, the nature of the load, the surface hardness and roughness, and on
the contaminants in the lubricating oil.

• Removal of material from operating solid surfaces by solid particles depends upon Load, Velocity, Environment, and
Materials.

• Removal of material from operating solid surface by Fluid (liquid/gas) depends upon Velocity, pressure, Environment and
material

• As wear increases power losses increases, oil consumption increases, rate of component replacement also increases.
Ultimately, it reduces efficiency of the system. Therefore, as far as possible wear should be minimized.
Wear Mechanisms
• Wear can be classified based on the ways that the frictional junctions are broken, that is, elastic displacement, plastic
displacement, cutting, destruction of surface films and destruction of bulk material.

• There are many types of wear mechanisms (more than 35 mechanisms), common wear mechanisms are

Major forms of wear Minor forms of wear

Abrasive wear Erosive wear
Adhesive Wear Fretting wear
Corrosive Wear Percussion
Fatigue wear
Abrasive wear
• Abrasive wear, sometimes called cutting wear, occurs when hard particles slide and roll under pressure, across the tooth
surface.

• Hard particle sources are: dirt in the housing, sand or scale from castings, metal wear particles, and particles introduced
into housing when filling with lube oil.

• Scratching is a form of abrasive wear, characterized by short scratch-like lines in the direction of sliding.

• This type of damage is usually light and can be stopped by removing the contaminants that caused it.
Following are few well-known reasons of abrasive wear mechanisms :

- Micro-cutting : sharp particle or hard asperity cuts the softer surface. Cut material is removed as wear debris

- Micro-fracture : generally occurs in brittle, e.g. ceramics. Fracture of the worn surface occurs due to merging of a number of
smaller cracks

- Micro fatigue : When a ductile material is abraded by a blunt particle/asperity, the worn surface is repeatedly loaded and
unloaded, and failure occurs due to fatigue.

- Removal of material grains : Happens in materials (i.e. ceramics) having relatively weak grain boundaries.
• Basic modes of abrasive wear are classified as two body abrasion and three body abrasion.

• 3 body abrasion causes less damage (10 times) compared to 2 body abrasion

Two – Body Abrasion :

• This wear mechanism happens between two interacting asperities in physical contact, and one of it is harder
than other.

• Normal load causes penetration of harder asperities into softer surface thus producing plastic deformations.

• To slide, the material is displaced/removed from the softer surface by combined action of micro-ploughing &
micro-cutting.
Rabinowicz’s Quantitative Law for
Two-Body Abrasive Wear
• Here basic assumptions are
1. All asperities can be represented by equal dimensions cones.

2. All the material displaced by the conical asperity in a single pass is removed as wear particles.

3. Load carried by nth asperity, wn = H(0.5 * πa2), where H is the hardness.

• Volume swept by penetrated asperity.

• a is the semi cone radius

• x is depth of penetration
• L is the distance travelled

Ex : Polishing by emery paper

Total wear is given by the sum of wear caused by individual wear

• Q is the volume per unit length

• K depends on the normal load,

hardness, micro-structure and is

determined experimentally

• If material is homogenous, wear rate is lower. More closeness of particle, hence displacing those particles is tough
• If heterogeneous materials, the reverse occurs
Three Body Abrasion
• Three body abrasion is material removed from softer surface by hard loose particles, which are free to roll as
well as slide over the surface, since they are not held rigidly.

• If particles of spherical shape, rolling will be easier. The wear rate is much lesser.

• Most of energy is absorbed in rolling action

• Roundness parameter F = 4πA / P2

• Due to rolling action, abrasive wear constant is lower compared to 2-Body abrasion.

• Generally K2B = 0.005 to 0.05; and K3B = 0.0005 to 0.005

• From above values of wear constants, one can conclude that wear rate is lesser in three body abrasion than
two body abrasion.
• The hard particles may be generated locally by oxidation or wear from components of tribological system

• Iron oxides wear debris produced during adhesive wear cause further damage due to abrasion.

• If clearance is larger than particle size, then the wear rate reduces significantly.

• The reduction in 3-body abrasion occurs due to energy consumed in rolling motion of free hard particles.
Adhesive wear
• Its is the adhesion which initiates the wear and later becomes a abrasive wear

• More related to adhesion and friction. Common in metals due to the bonding

• Real area of contact A = W/H

1. For elastic-plastic deformation A = (W/H)n 0.66<n<1

2. Adhesive wear arises from the shearing of the friction junction

I. Weaker junction : mild wear

II. Stronger junction : severe wear

• Steps in adhesive wear
1. Deformation of contacting asperities

2. Removal of protective oxide film

3. Formation adhesive junctions. Work hardening of the metal around the junction, which becomes
stronger than the cohesion of the soft metal

4. Failure of junction by pulling out large lumps and transfer of materials

• Laws of adhesive wear by Archard

1. Wear Volume proportional to sliding distance of travel (L)

2. Wear Volume proportional to the load (W)

3. Wear volume inversely proportional to hardness(H) of softer material

• Wear volume is given by V = K1WL/3H

• The value of K1 depends on elastic plastic contacts, shearing of those contacts, efect of environment, mode
of lubrication, etc.

• This expression of wear volume is a simple expression, as it does not require to estimate constant n,
individual shear strength of elastic and plastic junctions, efect of lubricant thickness, roughness, etc.
• K1 is a dimensionless constant expresses the probability of removing a wear particle.

• Factor K1 (often referred as index of severity) represents the fraction of the friction junctions producing wear.

1. k1 = 1. Every junction involved in the friction process produces a wear fragment.

2. k1 = 0.1 One tenth of the friction junctions produce wear fragments. For clean gold surfaces k 1 is
between 0.1 and 1. For clean-copper surfaces k1 is between 0.1 and 0.01. Clean gold surfaces wear
about ten times more rapidly than clean copper surfaces.

3. k1 = 10-7 means that of the junctions responsible for friction only one in ten million produces a wear
fragment.
• Some experimental observations
1. K metal-metal > K nonmetal – metal

2. K metal-metal > K nonmetal – nonmetal

3. K metal A-metal A > K metal A – metal B

Guidelines based on adhesive wear
• For longer service life or reliability of devices/machines, designer always aim for mild wear regime. It means
wear particle coming out from the surfaces need to be much smaller in size.

• For getting this conditions dissimilar metals are usually chosen to run together as they do not weld together
easily.

• If severe wear behavior cannot be avoided, such as in earth moving equipment's, routine maintenance is
essential.

• Many plastics undergo a transition from mild to severe wear as a function of sliding speed (that increases
temp.) or combination of sliding and contact pressure. For better life of those plastics, load & speed
conditions must be closely controlled.
Corrosive wear
• Chemical reaction + Mechanical action = Corrosive wear

• The fundamental cause of Corrosive wear is a chemical reaction between the material
and a corroding medium which can be either a chemical agent, reactive lubricant or
even air.

• Coupling shown in figure is corroded, due to moist environment and its outer
dimensions have increased.

• If we rub the coupling with fingers, brown color debris will get detached from the
coupling surface.

• In other words, after chemical reactions, mechanical action is essential to initiate

corrosive wear.
• Stages of corrosive wear

1. Sliding surfaces chemically interact with environment (humid/industrial vapor/acid)

2. A reaction product (like oxide, chlorides, sulphide)

3. Wearing away of reaction product film.

• The most corrosion films passivate or cease to grow beyond a certain thickness. This is favorable as corrosion
process stops its own.

• The formation and subsequent loss of sacrificial or short life-time corrosion films is the most common form
of corrosive wear.
Fatigue wear
• Fatigue is attributed to multiple reversals (apply and release) of the contact stress, occurring due to cyclic
loading such as in rolling bearings, gears, friction drives, cam and follower.

• Abrasive and Adhesive wear involve a large contribution from fatigue.

• At the start of bearing operation, the rolling bearings rely on smooth undamaged contacting surfaces for
reliable functioning. A certain number of rolling contact cycles must elapse before surface defects are
formed, and their formation is termed ‘contact fatigue’.

• Once the rolling surfaces of a bearing are pitted, its further use is prevented due to excessive vibration
caused by pits passing through the rolling contact.
Rolling contact
• Adhesive and abrasive wear occur through direct solid to solid contact

• If the lubricating film separates them, then they don't operate.

• In well lubricated rolling element bearing, there is no progressive visible wear due to adhesion or abrasion but
bearing life is limited by fatigue.

• The shear stresses are transmitted through the lubricating film during rolling motion

• As rolling proceeds, the shear stress continues to act and is almost entirely responsible for energy dissipation in
rolling contacts.

• If the stress amplitude is above the fatigue limit of the bearing material, fatigue failure will occur
Sliding contact
• For sliding contact wear takes place, mainly by adhesion and abrasion

• However asperities can make contact without adhering or abrading the surface and can undergo deformation
from the contact stresses

• As the deformation continues, the crack may nucleate at and under the surface.

• With subsequent loading and deformation at a critical number of contacts, may lead to crack extension and
propagation finally resulting in wear.

• Many rolling contacts are frequently accompanied by sliding and the friction stresses due to sliding causes the
maximum shear stresses to be generated near the surface.
Erosive wear
• Erosive wear caused by the impact of particles (solid/liquid) against a solid surface. Erosive wear

Solid erosion
Solid erosion Fluid erosion
• For example dust particles impacting on windshields

• Erosive wear rate(Ve) is function of

1. Particles velocity (K.E.)

2. Impact angle and

3. Size of abrasive.

• For ductile materials, the maximum erosion takes place by two process

1. Cutting wear – predominates at low angles

2. Deformation wear – predominates at higher angles

• At 20°, the sum of the two efects attains its maximum value.

• For brittle materials, the erosion takes place with wear particles forming due to coalescence of partial cracks
• If the speed is very low then stresses at impact are insufficient for plastic deformation to occur and wear
proceeds by surface fatigue.

• When the speed is increased, it is possible for the eroded material to deform plastically on particle impact.

• Quite common for many engineering components, wear may occur by repetitive plastic deformation.

• If the eroding particles are blunt or spherical, thin plates of worn material form as a result of extreme plastic
deformation.

• If the particles are sharp, cutting or brittle fragmentation prevail.

Fluid erosion Fluid erosion

• When small drops of liquid strike the surface of a solid at high speeds, very
Liquid impact Cavitation
high pressures are generated that exceed the yield strength of the material
erosion erosion
• Therefore plastic deformation or fracture may occur from a single impact
and repeated impact results in pitting and erosive wear

• The damage by such erosion sometimes accomplished with corrosion, is

likely in moisture erosion of low pressure steam turbine blades, rain
erosion of aircraft structures
Cavitation

• Occurs when bubbles entrapped in a liquid becomes unstable and implode against the surface of the solid

• Cavitation is the repeated nucleation, growth and violent collapse of bubbles in liquid

• When bubbles collapse that are in contact with very close to solid surface, they will collapse by generating
asymmetrical combination of shock waves.

• The solid material will absorb the impact energy

• Damage by this process is found in components such as pumps.

Fretting wear
• Fretting Wear coined in 1927 by Tomlinson. It refers to small amplitude (1 to 300 μm), with high frequency oscillatory
movement mainly originated by vibration.

• This generally occurs in mechanical assemblies (press fit parts, rivet / bolt joints, strands of wire ropes, rolling element
bearings), in which relative sliding on micron level is allowed.

• It is very difficult to eliminate such movements and the result is fretting.

• Fretting occurs wherever short amplitude reciprocating sliding between contacting surfaces is sustained for a large number
of cycles.

• The centre of the contact may remain stationary while the edges reciprocate with an amplitude of the order of 1 micron to
cause fretting damage.

• One of the characteristic features of fretting is that the produced wear debris is often retained within the contact due to
small amplitude sliding.
• The accumulating wear debris gradually separates both surfaces and, in some cases, may contribute to the acceleration of
the wear process by abrasion.
Percussion wear
• Percussive impact wear arises between a pair of repetitively colliding solid bodies, with the contact area on at least
one of the bodies kept as the same spot.

• If the adjacent contact areas from both of the bodies are always the same ones, one would expect a tendency for
both sides to wear; this could be the case, e.g., between the contacting teeth of a gear transmission

• There may be repeated contact on one of the bodies only - examples being the printing by a type character on ever-
changing spots of paper

• In a one-body wear process, only the damage of one partner surface is of interest - either because the second
partner is continually renewed or because the wear resistance of the second body assures that significant changes
are restricted to the first body.
Delamination Theory of Wear
• 1st published by N P Suh in 1973

• The theory provides an alternative explanation for the wear of metals sliding at low speeds to that provided
by "adhesion" theories.

• The theory is valid when there is no significant temperature rise at the surface to induce any phase
transformation

• It is shown that at low sliding speed the wear of metals occurs by subsurface deformation which induces void
and crack nucleation and subsequent crack propagation parallel to the surface. The cracks eventually
propagate to the surface producing thin wear sheets.
Summary of theory
1. When two sliding surfaces interact, the asperities on the softer surface get flattened and fractured by repeated loading,
forming small wear particles. Hard particles also tend to be removed, but at a much smaller rate.

2. The surface traction exerted by the harder asperity at the contact points induces incremental plastic deformation on
each cycle of loading, which accumulates with repeated loading

3. As the sub-surface deformation continues, nucleation of cracks takes place under the surface. Crack nucleation doesn't
occur very near the surface, which exists just below the contact region

4. Once the cracks are present, further loading and deformation causes the cracks to extend and propagate, joining the
neighbouring cracks. The cracks tend to propagate parallel to the surface at a depth governed by ,material properties

5. When the cracks finally shear to the surface, long and thin wear sheets delaminate. The thickness of the wear sheet is
determined by the location of sub-surface crack growth.

6. The wear rate is controlled by the crack nucleation rate or the crack propagation rate, whichever is slower.
Debris analysis
• The material that is detached from the worn surface has a form and a shape, which is characteristic of the processes that
lead to its formation.

• The debris produced during the early part of running in tends to have the form of finely machined chips, typical of
abrasive micro-cutting.

• Mild-lubricated wear tends to produce thin flake-like debris and fatigue wear more equi-axed particles.

• Fatigue crack propagation in rolling contacts is characterized by near-spherical particles, the concentration of particles
indicating the extent of crack propagation.

• It is possible to infer something about the state of a pair of worn surfaces by monitoring the form and amount of the
debris produced during their service period, provided the debris particles are collected before they have undergone
further chemical or mechanical changes.
 Spherical Debris

Equi-axed Debris

Flake Debris
• The details of particles are analyzed using various techniques, including optical microscopy,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray and electron difraction, etc.

• 'Ferrography‘ is a technique developed specifically for the quick and easy separation of ferrous
metal wear particles from a lubricant and its arrangement according to size on a transparent
substrate.

• The ferrography analyzer consists of three components:

• A pump--to deliver a lubricant sample at a low flow rate,

• A magnet-to provide a high gradient magnetic field near its poles

• A treated transparent substrate on which the particles are deposited

• Wear debris analysis is a relatively simple procedure not requiring a high skills level to perform.

• It maybe inferred from the debris sample the condition of the machine

• The debris are analysed for

1. Particle size

2. Type of particle

3. Maximum particle size

4. Contamination index

• A health index is later provided on a scale of 1 – 5, where 1 being the healthy machine and 5 being
threatened with failure
Wear test
• Wear test is carried out to predict the wear performance and to investigate the wear mechanism
1. Abrasive wear test

2. Rolling sliding wear test

3. Pin on disk wear test

Abrasive wear test
• A wheel or ball is driven by a motor, rotating and sliding against a fixed sample in the presence of abrasive
particles

• The specimen is in the form of block or plate. Contact pressure is controlled by dead weight through a
loading lever

• The abrasive particles such as silica are added through a nozzle connecting to a hopper, giving a three body
wear situation

• After certain time, the sample is removed and wear loss is measured

• A special advantage of having the abrasive wheel positioned is that worn of material is automatically
removed by gravity and thereby does not influence the wear of the surface.
The parameters to be controlled include contact load, sliding speed, type of abrasive particles and its flow rate.
Rolling sliding wear test
• Most popular measure for investigating wear as well as
frictional behaviour of a material under conditions of rolling,
sliding or a combination of both

• Two disc are fixed to two parallel shafts and pressed against
each other under a constant contact load

• Driven by a motor through a train of gear, the specimens are

rotated along with shafts and the wear of specimen in
microns is noted and the wear rate is calculated.
Pin on disk wear test
• A pin is loaded against a flat rotating disc specimen such that a circular wear path is described by
the machine.

• The machine can be used to evaluate wear and friction properties of materials under pure sliding
conditions.

• Either disc or pin can serve as specimen

• Pin with various geometry can be used

• A better approach is to use a ball of commercially available materials such as tungsten carbide or
alumina