A comparative study of different wear measurement techniques applied to fretting wear of a spherical against a flat steel specimen

Abstract

AbstractOne of the main problems in fretting wear research is accurate measurement of the very small wear volumes (in microgams) produced. Different techniques, with their own advantages and disadvantages, can be used. Classic wear techniques lack sensitivity and often fail to measure the fretting wear volumes at all, or are not accurate enough. The authors have developed a Thin Layer Activation (TLA) method for quantification of the fretting wear of steel surfaces. The same method can also be used to determine material transfer between wear specimens. In this paper, the different methods are reviewed, and their accuracy in terms of the fretting wear measurement of steel surfaces is discussed. It is concluded that TLA has relatively good reproducibility and accuracy in comparison with classic fretting wear measurement techniques, such as normal approach measurement and spherical cap modelling. Modern threedimensional profilometry has better reproducibility than TLA, but is afflicted by systematic errors because of the oxidation of the metal surface. The different methods emphasise different features of the fretting process, and it is advisable to use them together for measuring fretting wear; their combined use provides a better understanding of the fundamentals of the fretting wear process.