WEAR

• In any tribological system, when two solid surfaces are in contact, there is
damage to the surface and/or subsurface.

• Wear is erosion or the sideways displacement of the material from its original
position on a solid surface, performed by the action of another surface.

• Wear is a process of removal of material from one or both of two solid surfaces
in solid state contact, occurring when these two solid surfaces are in sliding
or rolling motion together. Bhushan and Gupta (1991).

• Wear is correlated to interactions between surfaces and more precisely, the

removal and deformation of a material on a surface as a result of the
mechanical action of the opposite surface (Rabinowicz 1995).
• Wear is the progressive damage, involving material loss,
which occurs on the surface of a component as result of
its motion relative to the adjacent working parts. John
Williams.

Occurrence of Wear depends on

 Geometry of the surface

 Applied load

 The rolling and sliding velocities

 Environmental conditions

 Mechanical, Thermal, Chemical and Metallurgical

properties

 Physical, Thermal and Chemical properties of the

lubricant .
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, but
we shall discuss about common wear mechanisms, which are:

• Abrasive Wear : polishing, scouring, scratching, grinding,

gouging.

• Adhesive Wear : galling, scuffing, scoring.

• Cavitation (interaction with fluid).

• Corrosive Wear (Chemical nature).

• Erosive Wear.

• Fatigue : delamination.

• Fretting Wear.
 Abrasive wear
•Abrasive wear occurs when a hard rough surface slides
across a softer surface.

•Abrasive Wear-defined as the loss of material due to hard

particles or hard protuberances that are forced against and
move along a solid surface.

•Abrasive wear is commonly classified according to the type of

contact and the contact environment.

•The type of contact determines the mode of abrasive wear.

•The two modes of abrasive wear are known as two-body and

three-body abrasive wear.
•Two-body wear occurs when the grits or hard particles remove material
from the opposite surface. The common analogy is that of material being
removed or displaced by a cutting or ploughing operation.

•Three-body wear occurs when the particles are not constrained, and are
free to roll and slide down a surface. The contact environment determines
whether the wear is classified as open or closed.
 Factors influencing abrasive wear behaviour
Particle shape
Yield strength
Abrasive properties Fracture properties
Hardness
Concentration
Hardness
Yield strength
Elastic modulus
Ductility
Wear material
Toughness
properties
Work-hardening characteristics
Fracture toughness
Microstructure
Corrosion resistance
Force/impact level
Velocity
Impact/impingement angle
Contact conditions Sliding/rolling
Temperature
Wet/dry
pH
Three commonly identified mechanisms of abrasive wear are:

Ploughing occurs when material is displaced to the side, away from the
wear particles, resulting in the formation of grooves that do not involve
direct material removal. The displaced material forms ridges adjacent to
grooves, which may be removed by subsequent passage of abrasive
particles.

Cutting occurs when material is separated from the surface in the form of
primary debris, or microchips, with little or no material displaced to the
sides of the grooves. This mechanism closely resembles conventional
machining.

Fragmentation occurs when material is separated from a surface by a

cutting process and the indenting abrasive causes localized fracture of the
wear material. These cracks then freely propagate locally around the wear
groove, resulting in additional material removal by spalling.
 Adhesive wear
•Adhesive wear can be found between surfaces during frictional contact and
generally refers to unwanted displacement and attachment of wear debris
and material compounds from one surface to another.

•Two adhesive wear types can be distinguished:

•Adhesive wear is caused by relative motion, "direct contact" and plastic
deformation which create wear debris and material transfer from one surface
to another.
•Generally, adhesive wear occurs when two bodies slide over or are pressed
into each other, which promote material transfer. This can be described as
plastic deformation of very small fragments within the surface layers.

•Cohesive adhesive forces, holds two surfaces together even though they are
separated by a measurable distance, with or without any actual transfer of
material.
•The asperities or microscopic high points found on each surface
affect the severity of how fragments of oxides are pulled off and
added to the other surface, partly due to strong adhesive forces
between atoms, but also due to accumulation of energy in the plastic
zone between the asperities during relative motion.
•The type of mechanism and the amplitude of surface attraction
varies between different materials but are amplified by an increase
in the density of "surface energy".
•Most solids will adhere on contact to some extent. However,
oxidation films, lubricants and contaminants naturally occurring
generally suppress adhesion, and spontaneous exothermic chemical
reactions between surfaces generally produce a substance with low
energy status in the absorbed species.
• Adhesive wear can lead to an increase in roughness and the creation of
protrusions (i.e., lumps) above the original surface.

• In industrial manufacturing, this is referred to as galling, which

eventually breaches the oxidized surface layer and connects to the
underlying bulk material, enhancing the possibility for a stronger
adhesion and plastic flow around the lump.

• Several factors can lower adhesive wear are:

• Lower load.
• Harder rubbing materials.
• Removing contaminates between rubbing surfaces.
• Presence of solid lubricants.
• Presence of lubricating oil.
• Anti‐wear additives in oil.
 Surface fatigue
• Surface fatigue is a process by which the surface of a material is
weakened by cyclic loading, which is one type of general material fatigue.
• Fatigue wear is produced when the wear particles are detached by cyclic
crack growth of microcracks on the surface.
• These microcracks are either superficial cracks or subsurface cracks.
Contact fatigue :As one element rolls many times over the other element
Maximum shear stress is higher than fatigue limit
 Corrosive wear
 Corrosive wear =chemical reaction + Mechanical action
 The fundamental cause of Corrosive wear is a chemical reaction between
the material and a corroding medium which can be either a chemical
reagent, reactive lubricant or even air.
 Understanding the mechanisms of corrosive is important to reduce this
kind of wear.
 Stages of corrosive wear :

• Sliding surfaces chemically interact with environment (humid/industrial

vapor/acid)

• A reaction product (like oxide, chlorides, copper sulphide)

• 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.
• But most corrosion films are brittle & porous, and mechanical sliding
wears away the film. The formation and subsequent loss of sacrificial or
short life-time corrosion films is the most common form of corrosive wear.
 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 wear and fretting fatigue are present in almost all machinery and are the
cause of total failure of some otherwise robust components.
• Fretting occurs wherever short amplitude reciprocating sliding between contacting
surfaces is sustained for a large number of cycles.
• 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. The process of fretting wear can
be further accelerated by temperature.
 Silver Bridge

The bridge failure was due to a defect in a single link, eye-bar 330, on the
north of the Ohio subsidiary chain, the first link below the top of the Ohio
tower. A small crack was formed through fretting wear at the bearing, and
grew through internal corrosion, a problem known as stress corrosion
cracking.
 Mianus River Bridge

The collapse was caused by the failure of two pin and hanger assemblies that held the
deck in place on the outer side of the bridge, according to an investigation by
the National Transportation Safety Board.
Rust formed within the bearing of the pin, exerting a force on the hanger which was
beyond design limits for the retaining clamps. It forced the hanger on the inside part of
the expansion joint at the southeast corner off the end of the pin that was holding it,
and the load was shifted to outside hanger. The extra load on the remaining hanger
started a fatigue crack at a sharp corner on the pin. When it failed catastrophically, the
deck was supported at just three corners. When two heavy trucks and a car entered the
section, the remaining expansion joint failed, and the deck crashed into the river below.
 Erosive wear

•Erosive wear can be defined as an extremely short sliding motion and is

executed within a short time interval.
•Erosive wear is caused by the impact of particles of solid or liquid against
the surface of an object.
• The impacting particles gradually remove material from the surface
through repeated deformations and cutting actions.
•Due to the nature of the conveying process, piping systems are prone to
wear when abrasive particles have to be transported.
•The rate of erosive wear is dependent upon a number of factors, such as {{{

•Shape
• hardness
•impact velocity
•impingement angle (30°)
 Delamination of Wear
The delamination theory of wear describes the following sequential (or
independent, if there are pre-existing subsurface cracks) events which lead
to wear particle formation,
(1) When two sliding surfaces come into contact, normal and tangential
loads are transmitted through the contact points by adhesive and
plowing actions. Asperities of the softer surface are easily deformed and
some are fractured by the repeated loading action. A relatively smooth
surface is generated, either when these asperities are deformed or when
they are removed. Once the surface becomes smooth, the contact is not
just an asperity to asperity contact, but rather an asperity plane contact'
each point along the softer surface experiences cyclic loading as the
asperities of the harder surface plow it.
(2) The surface traction exerted by the harder asperities on the softer
surface induces plastic shear deformation which accumulates with
repeated loading.
3) As the subsurface deformation continues, cracks are nucleated below the
surface, Crack nucleation very near the surface is not favored because of a
triaxial state of highly compressive stress which exists just below the
contact regions.
4) Once cracking are present (owing either to the crack nucleation process or
to pre-existing voids), further loading and deformation causes cracks to
extend and to propagate, joining neighboring ones. The cracks tend to
propagate parallel to the surface at a depth governed by material
properties and the coefficient of friction. When cracks cannot propagate
because of either limited deformation or an extremely small tangential
traction at the asperity contact, crack nucleation is the rate controlling
mechanism.
5) When these cracks finally shear to the surface (at certain weak positions)
long and thin wear sheets "delaminate". The thickness of a wear sheet is
controlled by the location of subsurface crack growth, which is controlled
by the normal and the tangential loads at the surface.
 Delamination Wear Mechanisms

Four mechanisms of delamination wear

1. Plastic deformation of the surface

2. Crack nucleation at the sub-surface due to plastic deformation

3. Crack propagation from these nucleated cracks due to plastic

deformation

4. Creation of loose wear sheets