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Acelerated Wear Test FKM
Acelerated Wear Test FKM
Polymer Testing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest
Test method
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 15 June 2012
Accepted 25 July 2012
The tribological properties of FKM uorocarbon elastomer were investigated with the aim
of developing suitable accelerated wear test conditions for this type of seal material. The
wear pattern of the specimen under normal operating conditions was monitored over
a test time of 1000 h to be used as a reference. The results were compared with experiments performed under accelerated testing conditions. It was found that by mixing
alumina particles of w1 mm with the lubricant, the wear of a FKM specimen could be
accelerated by a factor of 58, while maintaining similar wear behavior as that of the normal
test conditions. The results of this work are expected to aid in the prediction of life FKM
elastomer seals.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Accelerated testing
Acceleration factor
Elastomer
Friction
Seal
Wear
1. Introduction
Seals are widely used in cylinders and hydraulic systems
to prevent liquid or gas from internal leakage [1]. They
operate by bearing pressure against a counter surface to
close the gap between two components in contact [2]. Seals
may be divided into static or dynamic seals depending on
the nature of their application. Examples of static seals are
gaskets and o-rings, whereas reciprocating and rotating
shaft seals are classied as dynamic seals [3]. If a seal is
improperly installed or used, failure will eventually occur
with time. There are several modes of failure in seals
including abrasion, compression set, and chemical and
thermal degradation [46]. Particularly in the case of
dynamic seals, surface wear occurs gradually over time
eventually leading to opening of the gap and leakage [7].
This may cause catastrophic damage to the machine and,
therefore, the reliability of seals is crucial for extended life
of machines.
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V kLx=H
work was to provide a fundamental basis for ALT of elastomers such as FKM that will be helpful to the design of ALT for
industrial applications.
2. Experimental details
2.1. Experimental specimens
FKM elastomer was chosen for its wide use in industry
as a seal material in hydraulic systems and various vacuum
devices. The mechanical properties of FKM elastomer are
known to be relatively good compared with other
commercial elastomers in respect of durability, heat resistance and chemical stability [22]. The FKM test specimens
were cut from an o-ring to a length of 20 mm to give the
cross sectional shape and dimensions shown in Fig. 1.
The counter surface was a at stainless steel (stainless
steel 304) plate. Stainless steel (SS) was chosen to represent
a hard metallic surface against which seals are commonly
in contact. The mechanical properties of the specimens
used in this work are given in Table 1. Since the hardness of
SS was much greater than that of the FKM elastomer, wear
of the SS specimen was not expected to be a signicant
concern during the wear tests. Finally, Rando 46, which is
commonly used as lubricant in hydraulic systems, was used
as the lubricant in the wear tests.
(1)
Fig. 1. Cross sectional shape and dimensions of the FKM elastomer specimen
used in the wear tests. The arrow indicates the surface that is in contact with
the stainless steel plate during the wear test.
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Table 1
Mechanical properties of FKM elastomer and stainless steel.
Poissons ratio
Hardness
Modulus of elasticity
Roughness
FKM elastomer
Stainless steel
0.46
71 (Shore A)
16.5 MPa
0.31
63 (HRC)
207 MPa
0.139 mm
pressure may lead to secondary effects that are not representative of the natural wear process. Thus, for the shape
and properties of the FKM specimen used in this work, it
was determined that a contact pressure below 1 MPa was
appropriate. As shown in Fig. 1, for the FKM specimen tip
radius of 2.5 mm, the maximum contact pressure and
contact width were estimated to be 0.65 MPa and 0.47 mm,
respectively, based on the Hertzian contact theory for an
elastic contact between a cylinder and a at surface [23].
The wear tests were performed under boundary lubrication conditions, a small amount of lubricant (0.4 g) being
placed in the contact region. Due to the surface tension of
the lubricant and because the sliding speed was relatively
low, the lubricant remained at the sliding interface
throughout the wear test. For the wear test conducted
under normal condition, the lubricant was used unaltered.
However, in the case of the accelerated tests, w1 mm
alumina particles were added to the lubricant to induce
more abrasion.
During the wear test, the frictional force between the
FKM and SS specimens was measured by a load cell and
recorded in real time through a PC-based data acquisition
system. The frictional force information was utilized to
monitor the state of sliding contact during the wear test.
Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental setup.
2.3. Experimental method and results
2.3.1. Wear test under normal wear conditions
Initially, the wear characteristics of FKM under normal
sliding conditions were assessed using the normal lubricant for 1000 h. During this test, the frictional force was
monitored and the surface of the FKM specimen was
examined periodically for signs of surface degradation. The
test was stopped at approximately 100-h intervals and the
FKM specimen was removed from the tribotester for optical
microscope analysis of the surface. After characterizing the
wear pattern of the surface, the FKM specimen was repositioned in the tester to continue the wear test. Extreme
care was to taken to ensure that the angle and position of
contact between the FKM and SS specimens were consistent before and after the specimen mounting process. By
doing so, the characteristics and progression of wear of the
FKM specimen could be obtained as a function of the test
duration. This result was used as a reference to compare
with the results of the accelerated wear test.
Fig. 3 shows the optical microscope images of the
normal wear pattern of the FKM specimen at three
different locations at various time intervals. The images
from left to right show the generation of wear with respect
to time at a similar location on the FKM specimen. A few
Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental set-up used for the wear tests.
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Fig. 3. Optical microscope images of the wear pattern of the FKM specimen at three different locations at 670 h, 770 h, 895 h, and 1000 h time intervals during
the wear test against a SS specimen under normal wear condition. Arrow represents the direction of sliding. The images from left to right show the generation of
wear at a similar location on the FKM specimen.
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Fig. 5. Optical microscope images of the wear pattern of the FKM specimen
at three different locations after (a) 2 h of wear test using Fe particles and (b)
10 h of wear test using alumina particles against a SS specimen under
accelerated wear conditions. Arrow represents the direction of sliding.
Fig. 7. Optical microscope images of the wear pattern of the FKM specimen
at three different locations after (a) 20 h and (b) 30 h of wear test against
a SS specimen under accelerated wear conditions. Arrow represents the
direction of sliding.
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this value was taken as the best estimate for the wear volume.
Using all the variables obtained, the effective wear coefcient
of the FKM specimen in normal wear condition was calculated to be an extremely small value of 1.27 1010 k.
Following the same procedure, the wear coefcient for
the 10-h accelerated wear test of the FKM specimen was
obtained. For the accelerated test, the sliding distance was
only 1 percent of the normal sliding test or 2.88 km. The
hardness of 157 MPa was used as in the case of the normal
wear test since all the FKM specimens were sampled from
the same o-ring. Also, the same load of 450 gf was applied.
Based on the average wear depth of the FKM specimen after
the accelerated wear test, the wear volume was calculated
to be 1.38 103 mm3. This amount of wear volume
resulted in the effective wear coefcient of 7.37 109 k.
This value was signicantly higher than that of the normal
wear test. Thus, the accelerated wear effect of the alumina
particles added to the lubricant was conrmed.
Finally, the acceleration factor, AFk, of the proposed ALT
method for the FKM elastomer was derived. For the system
where the life is based on the amount of wear, the Archards
wear equation may be used to estimate the life provided
that the wear coefcient of the system is known.
Based on the effective wear coefcients obtained
experimentally, the AFk can be derived from the following
equations:
V N kN LN xN =HN
(2)
V A kA LA xA =HA
(3)
xN vN t N
(4)
xA vA t A
(5)
t N =t A xN =xA
(6)
Essentially, the ratio of the test times given in Eq. (6) may
be considered as the acceleration factor, AFk. Thus, from Eq.
(6) and the Archards equation, the following expression for
AFk can be derived:
AF k xN =xA kA =kN
(7)
AF k 7:37 109 k 1:27 1010 k z58
Fig. 8. 3-D surface prole image of a typical wear scar on the FKM specimen.
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Fig. 9. 2-D surface prole of the wear track on the FKM specimen obtained after the normal wear test.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Research
Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean
government (MEST) (No. 2012-0001232).
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