A Study of Airborne Wear Particles Generated From a Sliding Contact

Recently, much attention has been paid to the influence of airborne particles in the atmosphere on human health. Sliding contacts are a significant source of airborne particles in urban environments. In this study airborne particles generated from a sliding steel-on-steel combination are studied using a pin-on-disk tribometer equipped with airborne-particle counting instrumentation. The instrumentation measured particles in size intervals from 0.01 mu m to 32 mu m. The result shows three particle size regimes with distinct number peaks: ultrafine particles with a size distribution peak around 0.08 mu m, fine particles with a peak around 0.35 mu m, and coarse particles with a peak around 2 or 4 mu m. Both the particle generation rate and the wear rate increase with increasing sliding velocity and contact pressure.