Effect of particle concentration on the tribological properties of NBR sealing pairs under contaminated water lubrication conditions

The abrasive wear behavior of elastomers has attracted a lot of attention and interest in order to better comprehend its effect on the service performance of the fluid sealing pairs. The objective of this work was to study the tribological performance of the fluid sealing pairs under various abrasive concentration conditions. Therefore, this study developed an abrasive wear test experiment for an acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) cylinder against 316L stainless steel plate tribo-pairs to evaluate reciprocating sliding tests under different particle concentrations. Results demonstrate that the abrasives feature strong aggressivity, which impedes the formation of a good friction-reduction water film, results in weak lubrication, changes the friction coefficient and wear rate, and deteriorates the tribological performance of the tribo-pairs. The friction coefficients of the low abrasive concentration are relatively small, and the friction coefficient increases with increasing abrasive concentration. At different abrasive concentrations and sizes, the rubber matrix is attacked in various forms by the hard particles, which appear as pinning, particle agglomeration embedment, and abrasive flow erosion. Particle concentration affects the damage behavior of the tribo-pairs, and the particles easily enter the interface of the tribo-pairs when their concentration is high.