Model for fretting wear of brittle ceramics

In selecting and designing materials for certain engineering applications, the resistance to material damage or removal of material from contacting surfaces in relative motion is an important factor. To determine these properties, laboratory tests are routinely conducted on new materials using a variety of tribometers with different contact configurations (ball-on-flat, pin-on-disc, etc.). The wear volume is typically measured as a function of the process parameters. Existing theoretical models are either phenomenological or have been developed for sharp indenters. The present work proposes a mechanics-based model for the calcualtion of wear volume for ball-on-flat type of contact in severe and ultra-severe wear regime and the dependence of wear volume on load and material properties (toughness, elastic modulus) can be successfully predicted for any brittle material using the proposed model. In order to demonstrate this, the experimental results for three materials (Ti3SiC2, WC ZrO2, TiCN -20Ni 10WC), with a broad range of properties, are compared to the predications of this model and also to those from existing models. (C) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.