Modelling low stress abrasive wear

Abstract

Low stress abrasive wear tests have been undertaken using a modified ASTM G65 procedure. Wear scar and wear debris morphologies indicate that the principal mechanism of material removal is throuhg the sliding of abrasive particles which form shallow grooves, from which thin platelets of material are removed. It is shown that there is a correlation between the abrasive particle size, wear debris size and wear groove size distributions. From a knowledge of the particle flux, the particle size distribution and the loading conditions, metal recession rates have been predicted based on a low cycle fatigue model. Wear rates for a wide range of materials and test conditions have been predicted to better than a factor of two. The proposed approach to modelling low stress abrasive wear should be appropriate when the degree of penetration of the abrasive is very low, well within the ploughing regime. In the present work, the degree of penetration was less than 0.1.