Abrasive wear of embossed surfaces with convex domes

Some soil-burrowing animals and other biological organisms living in contact with abrasive materials have surfaces optimized for reducing drag and wear. In this study, bio-inspired embossed surfaces consisting of an array of convex domes are investigated to quantify their abrasive wear resistance properties. The experimental procedure proposed in this work is based on sliding seven different embossed surface specimens against an abrasive material for distances up to 3948.9 m with sliding velocities up to 3.02 m/s. The seven specimens consist of 20 mm-wide convex domes made of bakelite and calcium carbonate fixed to flat steel substrates. Quartz sand particles having three different sizes are used as abrasive material for the tests. Experimental results are analyzed and guidelines for designing embossed surfaces, which are optimized to minimize abrasive wear, are proposed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.