BMMM 2343; Basic Tribology

Coordinated by : Dr. Muhammad Ilman Hakimi Chua

Wear includes the loss of material from a surface or transfer of
material from one surface to another.

A simple and useful statement is that wear is ‘damage to a solid

surface, generally involving progressive loss of material, due to
relative motion between that surface and a contacting substance.
The range of wearing components and device is endless:
Animal teeth and joints, cams. Piston rings, tires, roads, brakes, dirt
seals, liquid seals, gas seals, belts, floor, shoes and etc
❑Plastic deformation at the interface often leads to wear, i.e.,
deformation induced wear.

❑Wear can also be caused by chemical processes.

❑There are many different kinds of wear mechanisms.

❑ 1) 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 desirable.

❑ Zero wear is basically a polishing process in which the asperities of the contacting surfaces are

gradually worn off until a very fine, smooth surface develops. Generally, “polishing-in” wear is
desirable for better life of tribo-pair. Fig. 3.1(a) shows polished surface of helical gear which
occurs due to slow loss of metal at a rate that will have a little affect on the satisfactory
performance within the life of the gears.

Smooth surface

❑ Example of productive(desirable wear): writing with a pencil, machining, polishing, shaving.

❑ (2) Measurable wear : Removal of material from surface that increases vibration; noise or surface roughness

may be treated an "Measureable wear". Undesirable removal of material occurs in measurable wear.

❑ Measurable wear refers to a loss of material. 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.

❑ A typical example of measurable wear in helical gear is shown in Fig. 3.1(b) which is typically known as pitting

wear.

Pitting surface

❑ Example of undesirable wear: machine applications such as bearings, seals, gears, cams.

❑ - components may need replacement after a relatively small amount of material has been removed or if the

surface is roughened
W ear occurs by
Mechanical
mechanical and/or
chemical means and
generally accelerated
by heat

WEAR

Chemical Thermal
❑ Six principal types; (1) adhesive, (2) abrasive, (3) fatigue, (4)
impact by erosion and percussion, (5) chemical (or corrosive), (6)
electrical-arc-induced wear.

❑ Other common types; fretting and fretting corrosion (combinations of

the adhesive, corrosive and abrasive wears).

❑ The most (2/3) encountered wear in industrial situations; adhesive

and abrasive wear.
❑ Adhesive wear occurs when two nominally flat solid bodies are
in sliding contact

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

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

❑ As the sliding continues , the fragments may come off the

surface on which they are transferred back to the original
surface or form loose wear particles
❑ Several mechanisms have been proposed for the detachment of a
fragment from one surface:

❑ Early theory, shearing can occur at the original interface or in the

weakest region in one of the two bodies (Archard, 1953)

❑ In a small fraction contacts break may occur in one of the two bodies
(path 2) an a small fragment (the shaded region) may become
attached to the other surface
❑ Another mechanism, plastic shearing of successive layers of an
asperity contact result in detachment of a wear fragment.

❑ Based on a slip line field occurs in conjunction with the propagation of

a shear crack, along with the fragment detaches.

❑ This process results in thin wedge-shaped transfer fragments

❑ The fragments have a detached from one surface and transferred to

the mating surface because of adhesion.

❑ Further sliding cause more fragments to be formed.

Figure 7.2.2 Schematic showing detachment of fragment of a material from plastic shearing of successive
layers of an asperity contact. Repoduced with permission from Kayaba, T. and Kato, K. (1981)
❑ The adhesion (or bonding) between two surfaces is also
dependent on the chemical properties of the contact
surfaces.

❑ Materials with similar chemical properties generally

exhibit higher adhesive forces because they are able to
form chemical bonds more readily. Strong metal-to-metal
adhesion may occur as a result of electron exchange and
bond formation.
❑ Based on experimental data of various unlubricated material
pair, majority being metallic.
❑ The rules of adhesive wear as follows:
❑ The amount of wear is generally proportional to the applied load
W and sliding distance, x and inversely proportional to the
hardness H of the surface being worn away. That is the volume
of wear being worn away
 (Normal load)(Sliding distance)
V =
(Hardness of wearing surface)
kWx
=
H

k is dimensionless wear coefficient dependent on the

materials in contact
❑ For material combination of plastic contacts, the wear rate
decreases with an increase in hardness.

❑ For a material combination with primarily elastic contacts, the

wear rate generally decreases with an increase modulus of
elasticity (Next figure)
❑ For material combination of elastic contacts, in adhesive
mode, the wear rate decreases with an increase in surface
roughness.
❑ However, in abrasive mode, the wear rate increase with an
increase surface roughness
❑ 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.
❑ Contacting asperities pf most metallic and ceramic surfaces
during sliding – deform plastically
❑ Brittle materials – wear occurs by brittle fracture.
❑ The term “abrasion” is commonly used to describe wear
processes involving two wearing surfaces.
❑ Abrasion processes may be subdivided into two-body and
three-body abrasion processes.

❑ In the first case, the hard surface is harder of two rubbing

surfaces (two-body abrasion). For example: grinding, cutting and
machining.

❑ In the second case, the hard surface is a third body, a small

particle that are not fixed on a surface but instead move between
the two contact surfaces. (three-body abrasion)
❑ Material removal via plastic deformation can occur by several
deformation modes: plowing, wedge formation and cutting
❑ Plowing results in a series of grooves
❑ Due to plastic flow of the softer material.
❑ Material is displaced from a groove to the sides without the
removal of material
❑ Wedge formation
❑ Plows a groove and develops a wedge on its front
❑ Occurs when ratio of shear strength of the interface relative to the
shear strength of the bulk is high (0.5 – 1)
❑ Only some material displaced to the side and the remaining
becomes wedge
❑ In the cutting form, an abrasive tip with large attack angle plows
a groove removes the material
❑ In the form of ribbon-shaped debris like in metal cutting
operation
❑ Results in significant removal of material
❑ The controlling factor for the three modes of deformation are the
attack angle or degree of penetration and interfacial shear strength
❑ The quantitative expression for abrasive wear for plastic
contacts
❑ Consider a simplified model: one surface consists of an array
of hard conical asperities sliding on a softer and flat surface
and plows a groove of uniform depth
❑ Figure above shows a single conical asperity, with roughness angle
(or attack angle) of θ creating a track through the softer surface with
a depth d and width of 2a

❑ We assumed that the material has yielded under normal load dW

therefore

❑ Where H is the hardness of the softer surface

❑ The volume displace in a distance x is

❑ From both equation we get:

❑ The total volume of material displaced by all asperities:

❑ An equation of the form similar to Archard’s equation for abrasive
situations and is:
❑ Cutting of materials by hard particles in a high velocity fluid
impinging on a surface.

❑ The term “erosion” is commonly used to describe wear

processes in which only one surface is involved.
❑ The impacting particles gradually remove material from the
surface through repeated deformations and cutting actions.

❑ It is a widely encountered mechanism in industry. A

common example is the erosive wear associated with the
movement of slurries through piping and pumping
equipment.
❑ In chemical (corrosive) wear, chemical or electrochemical
reactions accelerate the wear process.

❑ Oxidative wear is a chemical wear process that is observed

in many metals.

❑ Oxidative wear involves the continuous removal of oxide

layers from the contact surface. The removal of material
commonly results from sliding contact.
❑ It is interesting to note that in many cases the metal oxide
may exhibit lower wear rates than the corresponding metal.

❑ In other cases, the oxide layer may delaminate due to sliding

movement if adhesion between the oxide layer and the
underlying metal is poor.
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