A tribo-oxidation abrasive wear model to quantify the wear rate of a cobalt-based alloy subjected to fretting in low-to-medium temperature conditions

Wear mechanisms of cobalt-based alloys are commonly known to be dependent on temperature: above a glaze layer transition temperature, wear rates are very low and a compacted oxidized compliant debris layer is spontaneously created in the contact. The present study focuses on the high wear rate mechanism occurring below this transition temperature of a HS25/alumina contact subjected to gross-slip fretting. The investigation shows that the wear volume is proportional to the product of the Archard's work multiplied by the oxide thickness generated between each fretting sliding pass. A simple tribo-oxidation wear model was developed and a very good correlation was observed with experiments as long as the compaction of debris layer leading to a glaze layer structure was not activated.