TRIBOLOGY

MECHANICAL (ENGINEERING) CONTACTS

Contact mechanics is the study of the 
deformation of solids that touch each other at Reference:
one or more points. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_mechanics

Stresses in a contact
area loaded
simultaneously with a
normal and a
tangential force.
Stresses were made
visible using 
photoelasticity
EXAMPLES of ENGINEERING CONTACTS
 Wire drawing or metal machining when a non-deforming tool is
used to plastically deform a lower-yield-strength material,
EXAMPLES of ENGINEERING CONTACTS
It may occur during the normal elastic contact interaction of machine elements
like intermeshing gear teeth
EXAMPLES of ENGINEERING CONTACTS
in the contact made between piston rings/cylinder liners, or cams and cam
followers in automobile internal combustion engines.

Piston Motion Video

  Contact mechanics is concerned with the analysis of
Aspects of surface and near-surface stresses…
 that result when two or more solid objects are brought
Contact together during engineering use.

Mechanics  These are sometimes termed ‘tribological contacts’.

POINT CONTACT

R1

R2
IF CONTACT AREA IS VERY SMALL (Approaching ZERO); AXIAL STREES GOES TO INFINITY!
EVERYTHING FAILS UNDER INFINITE STRESS 👎

In reality, always a small contact area forms which causes reasonable stress!
POINT CONTACT

R1 IF R2  ∞ R1

R2 = ∞
R2

If plastic deformation occurs during contact, it causes fast wear and tear. Engineers try
to keep the contact pressure – or stress levels – at lower (i.e., elastic deformation) levels!
 Conforming
Contact
A conforming contact is one in
which the two bodies touch at
multiple points before any
deformation takes place (i.e.,
they just "fit together").
• Adhesive interactions between contacting solids have a major
impact in many areas of engineering and everyday life. For
example, the degree of adhesion is critical for the assessment Adhesive Contact
of the quality of glued joints, in designing human joint
prostheses, or in understanding the sense of touch.

• Adhesive forces are also central to most modern theories of

frictional interaction, as well as to Archard’s theory of
adhesive wear. Coatings have been applied widely in
aerospace, biomedical, electronic and many other industries
with a view to obtaining desired frictional/adhesive
characteristics.

• In recent years, the need to include adhesion in contact

analysis has become increasingly pressing as micro- and nano-
electromechanical systems have been developed.

• In everyday life, objects at the ‘human scale’ do not stick to

each other, principally as a result of inevitable surface
roughness which reduces the proportion of the surface in
intimate contact.

• However, this does not always hold true at smaller scales,

where surface forces, including adhesion, becomes greater in
proportion to volume forces.
Adhesive Contact

Reference: https://www.tribonet.org/wiki/adhesive-wear/
Elastic Contacts for non-SE materials
Elastic Contacts for non-SE materials

= 𝜈 ~ 0.3
Elastic Contacts for non-SE materials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYAAYMQNqio after 5 min

Elastic Contacts for non-SE materials

If P > Pmax  Plastic deformation

Elastic Contacts for non-SE materials
 Born Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
Hertzian Contact 22 February 1857
Hamburg, German Confederation

Died 1 January 1894 (aged 36)

Bonn, German Empire

Nationality German

Alma mater University of Munich

University of Berlin

Known for Contact mechanics

Electromagnetic radiation
Emagram
Parabolic antenna
Photoelectric effect
Hertzian cone
Hertzian dipole antenna
Hertz vector
Hertz-Knudsen equation
Hertz's principle of least curvature

Awards Matteucci Medal (1888)

Rumford Medal (1890)

Scientific career
Fields Electromagnetism
Electrical engineering
Contact mechanics

Institutions University of Kiel

University of Karlsruhe
University of Bonn

Doctoral advisor Hermann von Helmholtz

 Hertzian Contact

 These contact stresses are called Hertz contact stresses, which was
first studies by Hertz in 1881. The Hertz contact stress usually
refers to the stress close to the area of contact between two
spheres of different radii. 

 After Hertz’s work, people do a lot of study on the stresses arising

from the contact between two elastic bodies.
 [An improvement over the Hertzian theory was provided by Johnson et al.
(around 1970) with the JKR (Johnson, Kendall, Roberts) Theory. In the JKR-
Theory the contact is considered to be adhesive. And then a more involved
theory (the DMT theory) also considers Van der Waals interactions outside the
elastic contact regime, which give rise to an additional load. Nowadays, the
study of two contact bodies and the applications of the theory have become a
new discipline “Contact Mechanics”]. 
* Tutorial on Hertz Contact Stress, Xiaoyin Zhu, OPTI 521
Hertzian Contact

 Hertzian theory of non-adhesive elastic contact 

 In Hertz’s classical theory of contact, he focused primarily on non-adhesive
contact where no tension force is allowed to occur within the contact
area.
The following assumptions are made in determining the solutions of Hertzian
contact problems: 
i. The strains are small and within the elastic limit. 
ii. Each body can be considered an elastic half-space, i.e., the area of contact is
much smaller than the characteristic radius of the body. 
iii. The surfaces are continuous and non-conforming. 
iv. The bodies are in frictionless contact (µ=0).
Hertzian Contact
Elastic Contacts for Surface Engineered materials

µ: Coef. of Friction

FEM: Finite Element Method

Elastic Contacts for Surface Engineered materials

If, E3 > E2; Magnitude of Pmax and 𝛕max increases

shifting 𝛕max (Z-positon) towards the interface!
A few general guidelines for practical SE design

 ‘Thin’ SELs promote substrate first yielding, whilst ‘thick’ coatings promote
SEL first yielding.
 Daring SE designs can be made to allow the carrying of contact stresses that
otherwise would cause yielding of the unprotected substrate by making sure
the position of τmax rests within the SEL. Additional allowance must be made
for subsequent material loss through in-service wear, for example. A good
‘rule of thumb’ here is to set the design SEL depth/thickness to ~2 to 3Z,
where Z is the position of τmax (Fig. 2.15b/2.16c)
 A more conservative SE design approach is to make sure contact stresses are
insufficient to cause yielding of the substrate and merely to exploit the SEL to
achieve better wear and/or corrosion resistance. This approach must be
adopted when deciding the magnitude of vertical contact force to apply, for
example, before conducting pin (ball)-on-disc wear/corrosion-wear tests to
prevent premature failure of the SEL (surface engineered layer) via the thin-
ice effect. For example, see the method used by Mallia and Dearnley (2007)
and Dearnley and Mallia (2013).
Sliding and Rolling • It was shown that both static and dynamic
contacts can be approximated in advanced FEM*
Contacts models that allow the interfacial coefficient of
friction μ to be varied.
• Here, static contacts are modelled by setting
μ=0, whilst realistic sliding contacts are
obtained by making μ»0 – e.g., 0.25 or higher.
• Simple sliding contacts involve no rotation of
the contacting bodies, as depicted in Fig. 2.22a,
• whereas simple rolling involves the relative
motion of at least one of the contacting bodies
about its centre, as shown in Fig. 2.22b. The
latter are termed ‘free rolling’ contacts, where
no sliding takes place.

• Such situations result (with the addition of a liquid oil lubricant) in the attainment of very low values of μ
(often ~10−3).
• These are typically observed for ball or roller bearing/raceway contacts. Some machine elements like thrust
bearings or cam/cam-followers, found in internal combustion engines or other mechanical devices, undergo a
combination of sliding and rolling contact.
*FEM: Finite Element Method
TRIBOLOGY
LANDING GEAR WHEELS ON RUNWAY
LANDING GEARS ON RUNWAY AT THE MOMENT OF TOUCHDOWN

 Watch carefully and tell what is rubbing against what?

 Does WEAR happen? If yes, where?
Wheels of Train Engine on the Rail
WHEEL ON RAIL

 Watch carefully and tell what is rubbing against what?

 Does WEAR happen? If yes, where?
DEFINITION OF TRIBOLOGY
 The word tribology derives from the Greek root τριβ- of the verb τρίβω, tribo
, "I rub" in classic Greek, and the suffix -logy from -λογία, -logia "study of",
"knowledge of".
 «KNOWLEDGE OF RUBBING AGAINST ONE ANOTHER»

Peter Jost used the word in 1966 the first time,[1] in the eponymous* report which
highlighted the cost of friction, wear and corrosion to the UK economy.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribology

*eponymous: isim babalığı

 TRIBOLOGY
studies 3 subjects

Mnemonics

Love  Lubrication
Worth  Wear
Finding  Friction
TRIBOLOGY
Tribology*, the study of friction, wear and lubrication, is an interdisciplinary subject
that draws on the expertise of the physicist, the chemist and the mechanical engineer,
as well as the materials scientist or metallurgist.
*Tribology Friction and Wear of Engineering Materials, Second Edition,
Ian Hutchings University of Cambridge, UK Philip Shipway University of Nottingham, UK

 Its reach extends to all aspects of modern technology, in the broadest sense
of the word, in which surfaces move against each other, from transport and
power generation to medical engineering, food science and cosmetics.

 TRIBOLOGY APPLICATIONS involve

“Surfaces in Contact and in Relative Motion”

FRICTION
 Friction may be defined as
“resistance to motion” of a body
contacting to another body.
 If two contacting surfaces are
rubbing one another there is
almost always a friction between
the two (extremely low friction
can be created and called Zero
Friction).
 If the friction increases, motion
requires more force  i.e.,
Frictional Force
 Ratio of friction force to normal
force (e.g., weight) is called F
coefficient of friction, µ. µ=
W
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EbUa5ZDybg
 FRICTION
Although the subject of tribology is much
wider than a study of friction, friction does
play a central role in the performance of
many mechanical systems.
LOW FRICTION
In some cases, low friction is desirable and
even essential. The satisfactory operation of
joints, for example, whether hinges on doors,
human hip joints or bridge supports, demands
a low friction force. Work done in overcoming
friction in bearings and gears in machines is
dissipated as heat, and by reducing friction
we can achieve an increase in overall
efficiency.
FRICTION
HIGH FRICTION
But low friction is not necessarily beneficial
in all cases.

In brakes and clutches, adequate and

controlled friction is essential to dissipate
kinetic energy and transfer torque;

high friction is similarly desirable between a

vehicle tyre and the road surface, just as it
is between the human foot and the ground
for walking.
FRICTION GENERATES HEAT…

Brake Pad Friction

ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgaFSeVk5fo

HW3: What is Aquaplaning?

How does it relate to low
friction?
Feynman Lecture Series (Click for reference)
Molecular forces between the atoms, and are the ultimate origin of friction.
IS FRICTION INDEPENDENT OF VELOCITY?
• It is quite difficult to do accurate quantitative experiments in friction,
and the laws of friction are still not analysed very well, despite the
enormous engineering value of an accurate analysis.
• Although the law F=μN is fairly accurate once the surfaces are
standardized, the reason for this form of the law is not really understood.

• To show that the coefficient μ is nearly independent of velocity requires

some delicate experimentation, because the apparent friction is much
reduced if the lower surface vibrates very fast.
AIP ADVANCES 7, 045005 (2017)
• When the experiment is done at very high speed, care must be taken that by Yuuki Aita, Natsumi Asanuma, Akira
Takahashi, Hiroyuki Mayama,
the objects do not vibrate relative to one another, since apparent and Yoshimune Nonomura
decreases of the friction at high speed are often due to vibrations. Nonlinear friction dynamics on polymer
• At the present time, in fact, it is impossible even to estimate the surface under accelerated movement.
coefficient of friction between two substances.
 It was pointed out above that attempts to measure μ by sliding pure substances such as copper on copper
will lead to spurious results, because the surfaces in contact are not pure copper, but are mixtures of oxides
and other impurities. If we try to get absolutely pure copper, if we clean and polish the surfaces, outgas the
materials in a vacuum, and take every conceivable precaution, we still do not get μ.

 For if we tilt the apparatus even to a vertical position, the slider will not fall off—the two pieces of copper
stick together! The coefficient μ, which is ordinarily less than unity for reasonably hard surfaces, becomes
several times unity! The reason for this unexpected behaviour is that when the atoms in contact are all of the
same kind, there is no way for the atoms to “know” that they are in different pieces of copper.

 When there are other atoms, in the oxides and greases and more complicated thin surface layers of
contaminants in between, the atoms “know” when they are not on the same part. When we consider that it is
forces between atoms that hold the copper together as a solid, it should become clear that it is impossible
to get the right coefficient of friction for pure metals.
 The same phenomenon can be observed in a simple home-made experiment
with a flat glass plate and a glass tumbler. If the tumbler is placed on the plate
and pulled along with a loop of string, it slides fairly well and one can feel the
coefficient of friction; it is a little irregular, but it is a coefficient. If we now
wet the glass plate and the bottom of the tumbler and pull again, we find that
it binds, and if we look closely we shall find scratches, because the water is
able to lift the grease and the other contaminants off the surface, and then we
really have a glass-to-glass contact; this contact is so good that it holds tight
and resists separation so much that the glass is torn apart; that is, it makes
scratches.
 LAWS OF FRICTION
Unlubricated Dry Surfaces
• For low pressure the friction is proportional to
the normal force between the surfaces. With
rising pressure the friction will not rise
proportionally. With extreme pressure friction
will rise and surfaces seize.
• At moderate pressure the friction force - and
coefficient - is not dependent of the surface
areas in contact as long as the normal force is
the same. With extreme pressure friction will
rise and surfaces seize.
• At very low velocity between the surfaces the
friction is independent of the velocity of rubbing.
With increased velocity the the friction decrease.
Lubricated Surfaces
• Friction force is almost independent of
pressure - normal force - if the surfaces
are flooded with lubricant
• Friction varies with speed at low
pressure. At higher pressure the
minimum friction is at velocity 2 ft/s
(0.7 m/s) and friction increases with
approximately square root of velocity
afterwards.
• Friction varies with temperature
• For well lubricated surfaces the friction
is almost independent of surface
material
 Angle of friction
For certain applications, it is more useful to
define static friction in terms of the maximum
angle before which one of the items will begin
sliding. This is called the angle of friction or
friction angle. It is defined as:

HW3a:
Prove that “µs” is equal to “tan 𝛳”.
µs = tan 𝛳
where θ is the angle from horizontal and µs is the
static coefficient of friction between the
objects. This formula can also be used to
calculate µs from empirical measurements of the
friction angle.
Kinetic Friction
WEAR
FRICTION, LUBRICATION AND WEAR are complex,
interwoven subjects that may all affect the
service life of a component or the efficient
operation of a machine.
Science and technology of friction, wear, and
lubrication—known as tribology

WEAR may be defined as damage to a solid surface

caused by the removal or displacement of material
by the MECHANICAL (sometimes together with
CHEMICAL) action of a contacting solid, liquid, or
gas.

SURFACE ENGINEERING FOR CORROSION AND WEAR RESISTANCE, EDITED BY: J.R. Davis
Davis & Associates, ASM International® Materials Park, OH 44073-0002
Classification of Wear

The simplest classifications of wear:

 Lubricated WEAR
 Nonlubricated WEAR
Classification of Wear

Wear classification on the basis of the “fundamental

mechanism that is operating”:
No classification scheme is universally accepted, although most of
them have reasonably similar features.
• Blau places wear processes into three categories based on the type
of motion encountered, that is, sliding, impact, and rolling contact.
• Budinski reduces wear processes into four categories, that is,
abrasion, erosion, adhesion, and surface fatigue.
Although both of the wear classifications schemes have merit, they
also point out the difficulties inherent in classifying wear processes
based on the commonality of mechanism.
 Classification of Wear • Blau places wear
Wear
processes into three
categories based on the
type of motion
Sliding Impact Rolling Contact
encountered, that is,
Abrasive (cutting) wear 2-body impact wear Pure Rolling Contact sliding, impact, and
2-body
multibody (3-body) rolling contact.
Rolling/Sliding Contact
Multibody impact wear HW 6:
Adhesive Wear Erosion Describe
Solids a) galling,
Liquids b) scuffing, and
Fatigue wear Gases
Delamination Slurries
c) scoring
Electric Spark in terms of wear and/or
Fretting Wear surface damage.
Cavitation Add photos of along with the
Polish wear Bubbles (jet) descriptions.
(Chemo-mechanical
abrasion) https://
www.corrosionpedia.com/
definition/1009/scoring-material-
Classification of Wear
A third approach to wear classification emphasizes the nature of the contacting materials and
the experimental conditions, using descriptive terms that are widely understood and accepted.
The following is an example of this type of classification:
Metal against non-metallic abrasive
High-stress gouging or grinding:
Wet, as in ball and rod mills
Dry, as in jaw-type or roll-type ore crushers
Low-stress scratching or sliding:
Wet, such as conveyor screws for wet sand
Dry, as against plows or earthmoving devices operating in dry soil
Impact of loose abrasive (erosion):
Wet, as against impellers in slurry pumps
Dry, as in sandblasting
Metal against metal
Sliding:
Lubricated, such as engine crosshead or shaft in a bearing
Nonlubricated, such as fasteners, nuts, and bolts
Rolling:
Lubricated, such as roller bearings and gears
Nonlubricated, such as wheels on tracks
Liquid or vapor impingement on metals
Wet steam, such as turbines
Combustion gases, such as gas turbines
Water, such as pump impellers
Cavitation, as in turbulent, high-velocity flowing liquids
 Wear Classification of Wear

Abrasion Erosion Adhesion Surface Fatigue

Low Stress Solid

Fretting Pitting
Impingement
Budinski reduces wear processes into
High Stress Fluid
Adhesive Spalling four categories, that is:
Impingement
• Abrasion,
Gouging Cavitation Seizure Impact • Erosion,
• Adhesion, and
Slurry
Polishing
Erosion
Galling Brinelling
• Surface fatigue
Oxidative Require
Require hard, Require
Wear repetitive
sharp fluid
surfaces action compressive
imposed on stresses
softer Require
surfaces interaction
between
conforming
surfaces
 Abrasive Wear

It is a “wear due to hard particles or hard

protuberances forced against and moving along a solid
surface”.

This form of wear in metals is most frequently caused

by non-metallic materials, but metallic particles can
also cause abrasion.

A material is seriously abraded or scratched only by

a particle harder than itself.

Figure shows the damage caused on the surface of a soft copper

substrate abraded by a hard ceramic particle.
Abrasive Wear
When two surfaces contact, wear occurs on both surfaces.
Individuals and industry tend to focus on the wearing surface that has the greatest
potential for their own economic loss, and consider the other surface to be the abrasive.
For example, an individual walking up the
stairs of a building would be more likely to
think that
his shoes, rather than the stairs, were experiencing
abrasive wear, whereas the maintenance staff would
have the opposite opinion.

In actuality, both surfaces are being

subjected to abrasive wear.
Rate of Abrasive Wear
The rate at which the surfaces abrade depends on
• the characteristics of each surface,
• the presence of abrasives between the first and second surfaces,
• the speed of contact, and
• other environmental conditions.
In short, loss rates are not inherent to a material.

• With reference to the above example, changing the material of either the shoes or the steps
could, and often would, change the wear on the opposite counterface.
• The addition of an abrasive, such as a layer of sand, on the steps would further change the
situation, in that the sand would be the second surface that contacts both the shoes and the
steps.
Volume for Abrasive Wear
A simple model for the wear volume for abrasive wear, V, can be described
by:

W.L W.L
V = 𝛼.𝛽 V= K
HV HV

𝛼 is the shape factor of an asperity (typically ~ 0.1),

𝛽 is the degrees of wear by an asperity (typically 0.1 to 1.0)
W is the load, K is the wear coefficient, L is the sliding distance, and HV is
the hardness.
Types of Contact during Abrasive Wear

(a) Open two-body, (b) Closed two-body

(c) Open three-body,

(d) Closed three-body
 Types of Abrasive Wear (a) Low-stress abrasion where
material is removed by hard,
Low stress abrasion High stress abrasion sharp particles or other hard,
Furrow sharp surfaces plowing
material out in furrows,
(b) High-stress abrasion
characterized by scratching,
plastic deformation of
surfaces, and pitting from
Gouging Polishing Mild Stress
impressed particles.
High Stress Damage is almost always more
severe than low-stress abrasion,

(c) Gouging abrasion where material removal is caused by the action of repetitive compressive loading of hard
materials such as rocks against a softer surface, usually a metal,
(d) Polishing wear where material is removed from the surface by the action of rubbing from other solids
under such conditions that material is removed without visible scratching, fracture, or plastic deformation.
The example shown is polishing metal removal with a buffing wheel.
Five mechanisms of abrasive wear

• Plowing is the process of displacing material

from a groove to the sides.

• This occurs under light loads and does not result

in any real material loss.

• Damage occurs to the near surface of the

material in the form of a build-up of dislocations
through cold work.
Five mechanisms of abrasive wear
If later scratches occur on this cold-worked
surface, then the additional work could
result in loss through microfatigue.
Five mechanisms of abrasive wear

• When the ratio of shear strength of the

contact interface relative to the shear
strength of the bulk rises to a high enough
level (from 0.5 to 1.0), it has been found that
a wedge can develop on the front of an
abrasive tip.

• In this case, the total amount of material

displaced from the groove is greater than the
material displaced to the sides. This wedge
formation is still a fairly mild form of abrasive
wear.
Five mechanisms of abrasive wear

• Brittle materials have an additional

mode of abrasive wear, namely,
microcracking or microfracture.
• This occurs when forces applied by
the abrasive grain exceed the fracture
toughness of the material.
• This is often the predominant mode of
severe wear for ceramic materials,
and is active in materials such as
white cast irons.
Five mechanisms of abrasive wear

• The most severe form of wear for ductile

material is cutting.

• During the cutting process, the abrasive tip

removes a chip, much like a machine tool does.
This results in removed material, but very little
displaced material relative to the size of the
groove.

• For a sharp abrasive particle, a critical angle

exists for which there is a transition from
plowing to cutting. This angle depends on the
material being abraded. Examples of critical
angles range from 45° for copper to 85° for
aluminium (Ref 3,4).
Effects of Material Properties on Abrasive Wear
Important factors in the resistance of ABRASION:

• Hardness,
• Elastic modulus,
• Yield strength,
• Fracture toughness,
• Microstructure,
• Composition.

Abrasion resistance of ferrous metals is highly dependent on three

metallurgical variables:
• microstructure,
• hardness, and
• carbon content.
Comparison of the hardness of
ferrous alloy constituents with that of
various minerals.
• The inherently hard martensitic
structure is preferable to the softer
ferritic and austenitic structures.
This is especially significant in
low-stress abrasion, where little
subsurface deformation occurs.

• When high-stress abrasion is

encountered, alloys with high
work-hardened hardness values
have improved wear resistance
when compared with alloys with
low work-hardened hardness
values.
Prevention of Abrasive Wear
Prevention is possible through proper material selection and the
use of surface engineering treatments.
• A number of material families have demonstrated good resistance to abrasive wear.
• They are typically hard materials that resist scratching, and include
• ceramics,
• carbide materials,
• alloyed white cast irons containing hard chromium carbides, and
• hardened alloy steels.
Applicable surface treatments include:
• Weld hardfacing coatings, for example, high-carbon iron-chromium alloys, tool steels, nickel-chromium-boron
alloys, cobalt-base alloys, and austenitic manganese steels
• Ceramic or cermet thermal spray materials deposited by plasma spraying, detonation gun (D-gun), or high-
velocity oxyfuel processes
• Hard chromium plating
• Case hardening treatments
• Selective hardening treatments, for example, flame hardening
• Wear plates, for example, white cast iron or manganese steels
• Hard coatings produced by vapor deposition, for example, TiN
 Solid Particle Erosion Video S. Particle Erosion

General Description.
Solid particle erosion (SPE) is the loss of surface material that results from repeated
impacts of small, solid particles.
SPE is a useful phenomenon, as in
 sandblasting and
 highspeed abrasive waterjet cutting,
SPE is a serious problem in many engineering systems, including
 steam and jet turbines,
 pipelines and
 valves carrying particulate matter, and
 fluidized bed combustion systems.
Erosion versus Abrasion
• Solid particle erosion refers to a series of particles striking and rebounding from the
surface, while
• Abrasion results from the sliding of abrasive particles across a surface under the action of
an externally applied force.

• In erosion, the force exerted by the particles on the material is due to their
deceleration, while

• In abrasion, the force is externally applied and approximately constant.

• A clear-cut distinction between erosion and abrasion is difficult in some cases, particularly
for very dense particle distributions in liquid or gas media, in which a "pack” of particles
can develop and slide across the surface, which would be classed as abrasion.
Liquid Erosion

General Description

 Erosion of a solid surface can take place in a liquid medium even without the
presence of solid abrasive particles in that medium. Cavitation, one mechanism of
liquid erosion, involves the formation and subsequent collapse of bubbles within
the liquid.
 The process by which material is removed from a surface is called cavitation
erosion, and the resulting damage is termed cavitation damage. The collision at
high speed of liquid droplets with a solid surface results in a form of liquid erosion
called: liquid impingement erosion.

Cavitation VIDEO Cavitation VIDEO 2

Slurry Erosion

General Description.
 Slurry erosion is progressive loss of material from a solid surface by the action
of a mixture of solid particles in a liquid (slurry) in motion with respect to the
solid surface.
 If the solid surface is capable of corroding in the fluid portion of the slurry, the
slurry erosion will contain a corrosion component. Figure 13 shows an example
of slurry erosion.
 A slurry by definition is a physical mixture of solid particles and a liquid (usually
water) of such a consistency that it can be pumped. The particles must be in
suspension in the liquid, and most pumpable slurries contain at least 10% solids
 Erosion Rate
For a given particle morphology, the
erosion rate, E, can be fit with a
power law dependence on velocity:
E = k.𝜐n
where k is a constant, 𝜐 is velocity,
and n is a velocity exponent.
n is typically between 2 - 2.5 for
metals and 2.5 - 3 for ceramics.
The rate of erosive wear is dependent upon a number of factors.
• The material characteristics of the particles:
• their shape,
• hardness,
• impact velocity
• impingement angle
• The material properties of the surface being eroded.
The impingement angle is one of the most important factors.
• For ductile materials, the maximum wear rate is found when the
impingement angle is approximately 30°,
• non-ductile materials the maximum wear rate occurs when the
impingement angle is normal (90°) to the surface.
General Description.

Adhesive Wear
Adhesive wear is defined as wear by
transference of material from one surface to
another during relative motion under load
due to a process of solid-state welding;
particles that are removed from one surface
are either permanently or temporarily
attached to the other surface.
 Adhesive wear may be between metallic
materials, ceramics, or polymers, or
combinations of these. It is dependent on
adhesion between the material, and that, in
turn, depends on surface films like oxides or
lubricants, as well as the mutual affinity of
one material for another.
 If loads are light and the natural
spontaneous oxidation of a metal can keep
up with the rate of its removal by wear,
then that wear rate will be relatively low
(the oxide acting as a lubricant). This is
called mild wear.
 If loads are high and the protective oxide is
continually disrupted to allow intimate
metal to metal contact and adhesion, then
SEM micrograph of adhesive wear (transferred
the wear rate will be high. This is called materials) on 52100 steel sample sliding against Al
severe wear. alloy. (Yellow arrow indicate sliding direction)
Volume for adhesive wear

A simple model for the wear volume for adhesive wear, V, can be
described by:

W.L
V= K
HV

where W is the load, K is the wear coefficient, L is the sliding distance,

and HV is the hardness.
Galling
General Description.

Galling can be considered a severe form of adhesive wear.

With high loads and poor lubrication, surface damage can occur on sliding metal components.

The damage is characterized by localized macroscopic material transfer, that is, large fragments
or surface protrusions that are easily visible on either or both surfaces. This gross damage is
usually referred to as galling, and it can occur after just a few cycles of movement between the
mating surfaces. Severe galling can result in seizure of the metal surfaces.

The terms scuffing and scoring are also used to describe similar surface damage under
lubricated conditions.

Scuffing is the preferred term when the damage occurs at lubricated surfaces, such as the
piston ring-cylinder wall contact.

Scoring typically describes damage that takes the form of relatively long grooves.
Rolling-Contact Wear
General Description.
• The rolling of one body over another, as in a rolling-element bearing, can result in:
• repeated stressing of the subsurface material,
• the nucleation of microcracks, and
• the eventual production of pits and spalls.

• Because rolling-contact wear is generally produced by repetitive mechanical stressing,

it is often associated with, or even referred to as, rolling-contact fatigue.

• Analysis of bearings and gears indicates that some degree of slip occurs in many
rolling-contact situations, such as in the cam and roller assembly in an automobile
valve train and in the engagement of gear teeth.

• Thus, it is common to observe sliding wear (e.g., scuffing or polished-looking areas) on

components that are ordinarily considered to be in "rolling contact."
Fretting Fretting refers to wear and sometimes corrosion damage at
the asperities of contact surfaces.

• This damage is induced under load and in the presence

of repeated relative surface motion, as induced for
example by vibration.

• The ASM Handbook on Fatigue and Fracture defines

fretting as: "A special wear process that occurs at the
contact area between two materials under load and
subject to minute relative motion by vibration or some
other force."

• Fretting tangibly degrades the surface layer quality

producing increased surface roughness and micropits,
which reduces the fatigue strength of the components.
 Lubrication

 Lubrication is the process or

technique of using a lubricant to
reduce friction and 
wear and tear in a contact
between two surfaces.

• A lubricant is a substance, usually organic,

introduced to reduce friction between surfaces
in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces
the heat generated when the surfaces move.
The property of reducing friction is known as
lubricity.
Lubricants
Almost any surface film can act as a lubricant. They do so by:
• preventing cold welding of asperities on opposing surfaces or
• allowing opposing surfaces to slide across one another at a lower
frictional force than would prevail if the film were not present.

• Lubricants may be either liquid or solid (in some cases, gas films
may act as lubricants).

HEAT DISSIPATION by LUBRICANTS

• One of the functions of a lubricant is to carry away heat generated
by two surfaces sliding under contact pressure.

• Liquid lubricants can dissipate heat better than solid or semifluid

lubricants, but in all types, the shear properties of the lubricant
are critical to its performance.
Lubrication
• Lubrication reduces wear and friction.

• Lubrication also protects rolling and sliding contact surfaces from excessive wear.

• Even with lubrication, however, wear still occurs.

• On lubricated surfaces, the wear process is usually mild and generates fine debris of a
particle size as small as 1 or 2 µm.

• Abrasive wear or delamination wear predominates under lubricated conditions.

• The fine debris generated by abrasion becomes suspended in the oil or grease.

Monitoring Wear

• In devices using circulating-oil lubrication, wear debris can be analysed by spectroscopy

and
• Deterioration of the device by wear can be diagnosed from these results.
• This technique is used to monitor the condition of vital components in aircraft and
locomotive engines.
 Video 1 – Friction Video 2 –
Modes of Lubrication Lubrication Lubrication

In all modes, contact surfaces are separated by a lubricating medium, which may be a solid, a semisolid,
or a pressurized liquid or gaseous film.

Hydrodynamic lubrication is a system in which the shape and relative motion of the sliding surfaces
cause the formation of a fluid film having sufficient pressure to separate the surfaces.

Hydrostatic lubrication is a system in which the lubricant is supplied under sufficient external pressure
to separate the opposing surfaces by a fluid film.

Elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication is a system in which the friction and film thickness between the two
bodies in relative motion are determined by the elastic properties of the bodies in combination with the
viscous properties of the lubricant at the prevailing pressure, temperature, and rate of shear.

Video Hydrodynamic Bearing Video Hydrostatic Bearing

 Modes of Lubrication
Dry-film (solid-film) lubrication is a system in which a coating of solid lubricant separates the opposing
surfaces and the lubricant itself wears away.

Boundary lubrication and thin-film lubrication are two modes in which friction and wear are affected by
properties of the contacting surfaces as well as by the properties of the lubricant.

In boundary lubrication, each surface is covered by a chemically bonded fluid or semisolid film, which
may or may not separate opposing surfaces, and viscosity of the lubricant is not a factor affecting
friction and wear.

In thin-film lubrication, the lubricant usually is not bonded to the surfaces and it does not separate
opposing surfaces. Lubricant viscosity affects friction and wear.
Properties of lubricants
Liquid lubricants maintain separation or opposing surfaces by pressure within the film,
which opposes the contact force. This pressure may be generated within the film, usually
as a result of the shape of the opposing surfaces, or the liquid may be forced between the
opposing surfaces by pressure from an external source.

Regardless of the means of creating pressure within the film, the opposing surfaces slide on
a film of liquid. Friction and wear are directly influenced by the thickness and shear
properties (viscosity) of the liquid. Where appropriate, the use of a high-viscosity lubricant
usually results in a relatively thick film and a low wear rate.

However, high sliding speeds cannot be accommodated by a viscous film, because excessive
heat generated within the film causes it to become less viscous and to decompose
chemically.
Full-Film (thick-film), Thin Film and Boundary
Lubrication
Full-film (thick-film) lubrication, such as occurs under hydrostatic or hydrodynamic
conditions, effectively separates asperities on opposing surfaces, whereas thin-film and
boundary lubrication allow asperity contact. The differences among these three
conditions of liquid lubrication are illustrated schematically in Fig. 17.
Full-Film Thin Film Boundary
(thick-film) Lubrication

Fig. 17: Schematic showing the relation of surface roughness to film

thickness. Shown are conditions of full-film, thin-film, and boundary
lubrication.
Extreme pressure lubricants

Some special types of boundary lubricants, most notably the extreme pressure
(EP) lubricants, react with a metallic surface, often at high temperatures, to
produce a monomolecular film on the surface. This very thin film contaminates
the mating surfaces and prevents metal-to-metal contact or adhesion.
Extreme pressure lubricants often contain extremely reactive constituents that
re-form the film instantly if it is scraped off one of the surfaces.
Film formation of this type is, in effect, corrosion; when it is uncontrolled or
when the film is repeatedly scraped off and re-formed, deterioration of the
surface can result.
Solid-film lubricants

Solid-film lubricants must be adherent to be effective, or they allow metal-to-metal contact or

introduce unwanted particles that roll and slide within the joint.

• When they can be kept within the joint, graphite and molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2) make
good lubricants because they shear easily in certain crystallographic directions.

• Hard, adherent oxide films, such as Fe3O4 on steel or anodized Al2O3 on aluminum, withstand
wear because they resist penetration and do not bond with most mating surfaces.
Solid lubricants

• Solid lubricants, which are solids with lubricating properties, can be

maintained between two moving surfaces to reduce friction and wear.
Numerous solid inorganic and organic compounds, as well as certain metals
and composite materials, may be classified as solid lubricants.
• Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), graphite, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and
graphite fluoride (CFx) are the solid lubricants most commonly used.
• Several hundred different compounds and mixtures have been described as
potential solid lubricants. Increasingly, solid lubricants are being vapor
deposited for use in harsh environments in which liquids would evaporate or
congeal.
Lubricating oils
• Lubricating oils are relatively free-flowing organic substances that are used to lower the
coefficient of friction in mechanical devices.
• They are available in a broad range of viscosities, and many are blended or contain additives to
make them suitable for specific uses. In general, lubricating substances that are fluid at 20°C
(70°F) are termed oils; lubricating substances that are solid or semifluid at 20°C (70°F) are termed
greases or fats.
• Oils are derived from petroleum (mineral oils) or from plants or animals (fixed oils). Mineral oils
are classified according to source (type of crude), refining process (distillate or residual), and
commercial use.
• The commercial mineral oil base products consist mainly of saturated hydrocarbons (even though
naphthene-base crudes are predominantly unsaturated) in the form of chain or ring molecules that
are chemically inactive and do not have polar heads. These commercial products may or may not
contain waxes, volatile compounds, fixed oils, and special-purpose additives.
• Fixed oils and fats differ from mineral oils in that they consist of an alcohol radical and a fatty-acid
radical, can be reacted with an alkali (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, for example) to
form glycerine or soap, cannot be distilled without decomposing, and contain 9 to 12.5% oxygen.
• All fixed oils are insoluble in water and, except for castor oil, are insoluble in alcohol at room
temperature. Fixed oils are generally considered to have greater oiliness than mineral
oils.
• Oiliness is a term that describes the relative ability of any lubricant to act as a boundary
lubricant.
Lubricating grease

Lubricating grease, as defined by ASTM, is a solid to semifluid product

consisting of a dispersion of a thickening agent in a liquid lubricant.

In more practical terms, most greases are stabilized mixtures of mineral

oil and metallic soap. The soap is usually a calcium, sodium, or lithium
compound and is present in the form of fibers whose size and configuration
are characteristic of the metallic radical in the soap compound.

In practice grease is soap: i.e., mixed oil with NaOH or KOH. If one adds some
additives (MoS2, graphite powder, polymers, etc.) to the above mix and heat
them to around 100C while stirring for a long time, she can produce grease.
Additives determine the temperature and pressure at which the grease can be
used.

Watch various videos in YouTube related to grease manufacturing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSCQ0k7QD9E