Wear 252 (2002) 894–901

Dry sliding friction and wear properties of zinc-based alloys

Gençağa Pürçek a , Temel Savaşkan a,∗ , Tevfik Küçükömeroğlu a , Samuel Murphy b
a Mechanical Engineering Department, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080 Trabzon, Turkey
b School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK

Received 15 August 2001; received in revised form 27 February 2002; accepted 12 March 2002

Abstract
The friction and wear of two near-eutectoid and two monotectoid permanent-moulded zinc-based alloys and an SAE 660 bronze for
comparison were investigated under dry sliding conditions. To determine the wear mechanisms surface and subsurface microstructures of
worn test samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
All of the zinc-based alloys had lower coefficients of friction and higher wear resistance than the bronze; the best wear resistance and
lowest coefficient of friction were obtained for the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy. Wear resistance increased strongly with hardness and tensile
strength and decreased with friction coefficient. Correlation of the experimental results showed that the wear behaviour of the zinc-based
alloys was consistent with Archhard’s equation.
Layered structures were formed under the wear surfaces of the zinc-based alloy samples during testing. The topmost layer, formed by
smearing and embedding of oxidised zinc–aluminium alloy was hard and is considered to have contributed to their low wear rates. Surface
and subsurface examinations showed that adhesion and smearing was the main wear mechanism for the zinc-based alloys, while abrasive
wear dominated in the case of the SAE 660 bronze. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Zinc-based alloys; Dry friction and wear; Wear mechanism; Bronze

1. Introduction [5,6,9]. However, the wear behaviour of these alloys in dry

Zinc-based alloys have been found suitable for a number
of engineering and tribological applications wherein they
performed better than bronzes, cast iron and aluminium
alloys; there has been a growing interest in the use of such
alloys as sliding bearing materials [1–5]. The main ad-
vantages of zinc-based alloys can be summarised as low
cost, high resistance to wear and abrasion, ability to with-
stand high loads and good emergency or dry running
characteristics [6–8].
The zinc-based alloys containing aluminium, copper
and/or silicon have been shown to have low coefficient of
friction and high wear resistance under lubricated sliding
conditions [6,9,10]. Copper was found to be more effective
than silicon in increasing the strength, but silicon showed
more powerful effect on the wear resistance of these alloys
[9]. Zinc–aluminium alloys containing both copper and sili-
con are gaining commercial importance as bearing materials.
The wear behaviour of zinc-based alloys was investigated
by a number of workers mainly in lubricated conditions
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-462-3772919;
fax: +90-462-3257405.
E-mail address: savaskan@ktu.edu.tr (T. Savaşkan).
sliding conditions was studied by Prasad et al. [2,11–13].
They observed different layers below the wear surface of
these alloys due to microstructural changes and explained
them in terms of high rate of straining and thermal fluc-
tuations. However, the wear behaviour and operating wear
mechanisms of these alloys in both lubricated and unlubri-
cated conditions have not been fully established. Therefore,
the purpose of this work was to examine the dry friction
and wear behaviour of some potentially useful zinc-based
alloys and a conventional bronze, and compare the results.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Production and testing of alloys
Two zinc–aluminium–copper and two zinc–aluminium–
copper–silicon alloys were produced by melting and cast-
ing into a mild steel permanent mould. The molten alloys
were poured from temperatures approximately 50 ◦ C above
their liquidus temperature into moulds pre-heated to 100 ◦ C
in order to obtain sound castings. Castings had a conical
shape with a length of 180 mm, a bottom diameter of 57 mm
and a top diameter of 70 mm. The chemical compositions

0043-1648/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 3 - 1 6 4 8 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 5 0 - 9
 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901 895

of the alloys were determined using atomic absorption anal-

ysis. Metallographic samples of the alloys were prepared
using standard metallographic techniques and etched in 4%
nital, followed by examination using scanning electron mi-
croscopy (SEM).
Tensile strength and percentage elongation of the alloys
were determined on specimens 8 mm in diameter, 40 mm
gauge length at a cross-head speed of 0.3 mm s−1 . Brinell
hardness was measured using a 2.5 mm diameter ball inden-
ter at a load of 62.5 kgf. Vicker’s microhardness measure-
ments were made on polished and etched cross-sections of
the wear samples at a load of 20 gf.

2.2. Friction and wear testing

The friction and wear tests were carried out using a con-
forming block-on-ring apparatus. A schematic diagram of
this apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. The machine consists of a
narrow rotating disc, an edge-mounted sample and its radial
mounting system, and a loading and friction force measuring
system. The disc having a diameter of 150 ± 0.010 mm was
made of a SAE 4140 steel (Fe–0.41% C–0.90% Cr–0.14%
Mo–0.90% Mn–0.20% Si) and hardened to about 55 HRC.
Samples were fabricated from the test alloy castings and one
end was machined with a 150 ± 0.010 mm diameter cutter
so that the resulting curved surface conformed exactly to the
edge of the disc. The shape and dimensions of the sample are
given in Fig. 2. Friction and wear tests were performed at a
constant pressure of 1.5 MPa using a sliding speed of 1 m s−1
in a laboratory environment having an average humidity of
75%. The frictional force was determined using a load-cell
and the coefficient of friction was calculated by dividing the
frictional force by the normal load. The tests were carried
out for a total sliding distance of 3.6 km corresponding to a
period of 1 h. The temperature of the sample was monitored
during the tests by inserting a copper–nickel thermocouple
in a hole made at a distance of 2 mm from rubbing surface.
Fig. 2. The shape and dimensions of the friction and wear sample.
Each sample was ultrasonically cleaned and weighed accu-
rately before the wear test using a balance with an accuracy
of ± 1 ␮g. The disc was cleaned with organic solvents to
remove traces of oil or other surface contaminants before
each test. After 1 h and every subsequent hour thereafter the
test sample was removed, cleaned in solvents and weighed
to determine the mass loss. This procedure was repeated for
each sample until a total sliding distance of 18 km was com-
pleted. The measured values of mass loss for all the samples
tested were converted into volume loss using the measured
density of the alloys. The worn surfaces and the subsurface
microstructures of the wear samples tested for 5 h corre-
sponding to a sliding distance of 18 km were examined in
the SEM using the secondary electron (SE) emission mode.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the conforming block-on-ring test apparatus.

896 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901

Table 1
Chemical composition of the alloys
Alloy Chemical composition (wt.%)

Zn Al Cu Si

ZnAl27Cu2 71.2 26.6 2.2. –

ZnAl27Cu2Si1 69.4 27.3 2.2 1.1
ZnAl40Cu2 57.6 40.3 2.1 –
ZnAl40Cu2Si1 57.1 39.9 2.1 0.9
SAE 660 bronze: Cu–7 wt.% Pb, 7 wt.% Sn, 3 wt.% Zn.

3. Results

3.1. Chemical composition and microstructure

The chemical compositions of the alloys are given in

Table 1. The alloys are in two groups: one based on the near-
eutectoid (ca. 27% Al) and the other on the monotectoid (ca.
40% Al) compositions of the corresponding binary Zn–Al
phase diagram. The microstructure of the as-cast ternary
zinc–aluminium–copper alloy consisted of aluminium-rich
␣-dendrites and zinc-rich ␩-phases with copper-rich inter-
metallic particles in the interdendritic regions, Fig. 3(a). The
quaternary zinc–aluminium–copper–silicon alloys had sim-
ilar microstructures to those of ternary alloys, differing only
in terms of the presence of silicon particles. The microstruc-
ture of ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy is given in Fig. 3(b), and (c)
shows the details of this microstructure.

3.2. Mechanical testing

The density, hardness, tensile strength and percent-

age elongation of the alloys are given in Table 2. Of the
zinc-based alloys, the highest hardness and tensile strength,
and the lowest percentage elongation was obtained from the
ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy, while the ZnAl27Cu2 alloy had the
lowest hardness and tensile strength and highest elongation.
The addition of 1% Si increased the hardness and tensile
strength of the ternary ZnAl27Cu2 and ZnAl40Cu2 alloys,
but decreased their density and percentage elongation.
Fig. 3. Microstructure of (a) ZnAl27Cu2 and (b) ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloys. (c)
High magnification micrograph showing the details of the microstructure
3.3. Friction and wear testing of ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy.

The volume loss obtained from all the alloys tested are
shown in Table 3, and plots of volume loss versus sliding Table 3
Volume loss values obtained from the zinc-based alloys and SAE 660
Table 2 bronze at different sliding distances
Density, hardness, tensile strength and percentage elongation of the alloys
Alloy Sliding distance (km)
Alloy Density Hardness Tensile Elongation
(kg/m3 ) (BHN) strength (%) 3.6 7.2 10.8 14.4 18.0
(MPa) Volume loss (mm3 )
ZnAl27Cu2 4910 110 306 2.0 ZnAl27Cu2 17.0 37.1 57.0 77.0 97.0
ZnAl27Cu2Si1 4850 120 337 1.8 ZnAl27Cu2Si1 13.9 29.2 43.8 59.7 71.7
ZnAl40Cu2 4280 117 316 1.8 ZnAl40Cu2 15.9 32.0 48.4 65.4 80.0
ZnAl40Cu2Si1 4270 122 339 1.5 ZnAl27Cu2Si1 11.5 23.9 35.4 49.0 60.0
SAE 660 bronze 8780 85 205 7.2 SAE 660 bronze 20.3 42.5 70.6 93.8 110.5
 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901 897

Fig. 4. The change of volume loss as a function of sliding distance for the zinc-based alloys and SAE 660 bronze.

distance are shown in Fig. 4. The volume loss in all cases The steady-state values of temperature, coefficient of
increased linearly with sliding distance. The lowest total friction (for steady-state) and volumetric wear rate which is
volume loss was obtained with the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy, the slope of the volume loss versus sliding distance plots in
while the SAE 660 bronze showed the highest volume loss. Fig. 4 are given in Table 4. It can be seen that the coefficient
The ZnAl27Cu2 alloy had the highest volume loss among of friction and wear rate of all the zinc-based alloys were
zinc-based alloys. considerably lower than those of the SAE 660 bronze. The
lowest wear rate was obtained with the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy,
which also had the lowest coefficient of friction. The highest
Table 4
Steady-state temperature, coefficient of friction at the sliding distance of wear rate was obtained with the SAE 660 bronze, which had
3.6 km and volumetric wear rate of the alloys the highest coefficient of friction. Fig. 5 shows the coeffi-
Alloy Steady-state Coefficient of Wear rate × 103
cient of friction versus sliding distance curves for the alloys.
temperature friction for the (mm3 /m) The figure shows a sharp increase in friction coefficient dur-
(◦ C) steady-state ing the initial transient-state sliding period with steady-state
ZnAl27Cu2 76 0.54 5.39 levels reached after about 300 m. The plots of temperature
ZnAl27Cu2Si1 72 0.51 3.39 versus sliding distance were found to be similar to the
ZnAl40Cu2 69 0.46 4.44 plots of coefficient of friction versus sliding distance for all
ZnAl40Cu2Si1 63 0.44 3.36
the alloys. Fig. 6 shows this effect for the ZnAl40Cu2Si1
SAE 660 bronze 81 0.68 6.14
alloy.

Fig. 5. The coefficients of friction vs. sliding distance curves for all the alloys tested.
898 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901
Fig. 6. The coefficient of friction and temperature vs. sliding distance curves for the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy.
3.4. Examination of worn surfaces and subsurface
microstructural changes
The worn surfaces of samples of all the zinc-based al-
loys were found to be similar to each other, and a typical
Fig. 7. Appearance of the wear surfaces of (a) ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy and
(b) SAE 660 bronze wear samples tested for 5 h corresponding to a sliding
distance of 18 km.
micrograph for the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy tested for 5 h corre-
sponding to a sliding distance of 18 km is given in Fig. 7(a).
This figure shows extensive smearing over the worn sur-
face. No smearing was observed on the worn surface of the
bronze sample which instead showed continuous grooves,
deep scratches and gouging, Fig. 7(b).
Microstructural changes were observed in the subsur-
face regions of the worn zinc-based alloy samples. Fig. 8
shows a cross-section through the wear surface of the
ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy sample taken parallel to the sliding
direction. This micrograph reveals three distinct regions in
the surface material, marked with a, b and c. The top re-
gion a shows smeared and embedded wear material with an
extremely fine microstructure. Region b shows flow lines
oriented in the sliding direction. The bottom region c has
the original microstructure of the alloy. However, only a
Fig. 8. Appearance of microstructural changes in the surface material of
the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy wear sample tested for 5 h corresponding to a
sliding distance of 18 km.
 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901
Fig. 9. Microstructure of the surface material of the wear sample of SAE
660 bronze after wear testing.
thin wear-induced layer was observed on the wear surface
of the bronze sample, Fig. 9.
Fig. 10 shows the change in microhardness of a wear
sample of the ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy as a function of depth
below the wear surface. This curve shows that microhardness
decreased with increasing depth down to a certain level after
Fig. 10. Microhardness of the surface material of ZnAl40Cu2Si1 alloy as a function of depth below the wear surface. The micrograph above shows the
area where the microhardness readings were taken.
899
which it increased again to an almost constant level. The
highest hardness was obtained from the region a, while the
region b showed the lowest hardness.
4. Discussion
The zinc-based alloys showed lower coefficient of friction
and higher wear resistance than the SAE 660 bronze under
dry sliding condition. This may be explained in terms of
microstructure and the formation of oxide films on the wear
surfaces of these alloys [4]. The zinc–aluminium alloys have
a multiphase structure consisting of mainly aluminium-rich
␣ and zinc-rich ␩-phases. The ␣- and ␩-phases are ductile
in nature. The ␣-phase has a face-centred cubic (fcc) crystal
structure and the ␩ phase an hexagonal-close-packed (hcp)
crystal structure with a larger c/a ratio than the ideal. It is
well known that fcc crystals generally have excellent duc-
tility, while the close-packed planes of hcp crystals can give
rise to good smearing characteristics or even allow certain
materials to act as solid lubricants [13–16]. In addition,
oxide films are formed on the surface of zinc–aluminium
alloys during dry sliding which contribute to their excellent
wear resistance. Aluminium oxide is a hard ionic com-
pound and therefore acts as a load-bearing phase, while zinc
900 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901
oxide is a much softer hexagonal compound whose open
wurtzite structure allows it act as a lubricant under suitable
conditions [9].
Volume loss due to the sliding wear of materials is often
expressed by Archard’s equation [17]:
kPL
V = (1)
H or tension tests suffered a drastic change in metallurgi-
where V is the volume loss, P the applied load, L the sliding
distance, H the hardness of the sliding material, and k the
constant referred to as the coefficient of wear. This equation
indicates that the volumetric wear of a material is directly
proportional to sliding distance and inversely proportional
to its hardness at constant k and P values. In this work, the
volume loss obtained from the zinc-based alloys increased
linearly with increasing sliding distance and decreased lin-
early with hardness, indicating wear behaviour is consistent
with Archard’s equation.
The wear surfaces of the zinc-based alloy samples were
coated with zinc–aluminium-rich wear material, as seen in
Fig. 7a. This material had been detached from the sample
surface by adhesion to the surface of the steel disc [18].
During subsequent sliding, some of the transferred mate-
rial was lost and some re-embedded and smeared over the
sample surface, with some degree of oxidation accompa-
nying the redistribution. As a result of this process, a thin
layer of altered material had formed on the rubbing surface
of the zinc-based alloy samples which indicates that adhe-
sion and smearing were the main mechanisms of wear for
the zinc-based alloys. In contrast, continuous grooves and
deep scratches were observed on the wear surface of the
bronze sample, Fig. 7b. These grooves and scratches resulted
from the ploughing action of asperities on the hardened steel
counter disc, oxidised wear particles produced during slid-
ing [19] or possibly in situ or detached fragments of the hard
␦-phase which occurs in the tin–bronze [11]. This grooving
indicates that abrasion was the effective mechanism for the
wear of bronze samples.
Microstructural changes were observed in the subsur-
face regions of the zinc-based alloy wear samples that had
resulted in the formation of distinct layers. Such layers
have been reported previously in the subsurface region of
worn zinc-based alloy test specimens [2,12–14]. Our met-
allographic examinations suggest that the uppermost layer
(a), which had the highest microhardness, consisted of
smeared and/or re-embedded zinc-alloy wear material. In
other words it is a separate layer welded onto the rubbing
surface of the sample. This hard layer had lowered the
coefficient of friction and greatly reduced the wear rate.
The high hardness and non-etching characteristics of this
layer were probably the result of intense deformation and
oxidation of the basic material, which had produced an in-
timate mixture of alloy with oxide [20]. The second region
(b), which showed flow lines oriented in the direction of
sliding, had the lowest microhardness. This layer, which
graded into the unaffected as-cast matrix (c) deeper below
the surface, was evidently highly-deformed zinc alloy. The
hardness profile shows that its hardness was even lower
than that of the unaffected alloy, suggesting either defor-
mation and recrystallization or some structural changes
that had reduced the hardness. Recent work has revealed
that the most intensely deformed parts of zinc–aluminium
alloys tested in slightly above-ambient conditions in creep
cal structure. The original lamellar structure was replaced
by a very fine particulate mass, whose stress-resistance is
known to be greatly reduced at temperatures mildly ele-
vated above room temperature [21,22]. These observations
suggest that this soft flowed region had suffered some de-
gree of deformation in the early stages of the test before
formation of the transfer layer (a), possibly followed by
particle formation and subsequent intense flow. Thus the
layers can be interpreted as different degrees of alteration:
region (c) is simply the original material of the alloy, too
deep to be affected by the elevated surface temperatures
and stresses, and therefore having the original as-cast mi-
crostructure and hardness; region (b) is a layer of deformed
and softened matrix alloy, and region (a) detached and oxi-
dised material re-embedded into the surface during sliding
wear.
5. Conclusions
1. Zinc–aluminium monotectoid and near-eutectoid-based
alloys had lower coefficient of friction and higher wear
resistance than the SAE 660 bronze under dry sliding
wear.
2. The addition of 1% silicon to both classes of zinc-based
alloys increased their tensile strength, hardness and wear
resistance but reduced ductility. The change in mechani-
cal properties due to the addition of silicon was marginal.
3. For zinc-based alloys, a higher wear rate was associated
with a larger coefficient of friction for a specific concen-
tration of aluminium.
4. The volume loss of the zinc-based alloys increased lin-
early with increasing sliding distance and decreased with
hardness. This behaviour is consistent with Archard’s re-
lationship.
5. Adhesion and smearing were the main mechanisms of
wear of the zinc-based alloys, while abrasive wear dom-
inated for SAE 660 bronze.
6. Microstructural changes occurred in the surface material
of the zinc-based alloys during dry sliding. The top-most
layer was the hardest and this is considered to be respon-
sible for the reduced coefficient of friction and lower wear
rate of the zinc-based alloys. An underlying heavily de-
formed soft layer is thought to have formed early in the
wear process by frictional heat and plastic deformation
before the formation of top-most layer which consists of
smeared and embedded oxidised wear material.
 G. Pürçek et al. / Wear 252 (2002) 894–901
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the research fund of
Karadeniz Technical University. The authors would lake
to thank Dr. C. Duran for chemical analysis of the alloys
and all the technicians in the Materials Division of the
Mechanical Engineering Department of this university for
their assistance.
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