Reducing friction-induced vibration and noise by clearing wear debris from contact surface by blowing air and adding magnetic field

Abstract

The purpose of this laboratory-scale study was to compare two possible approaches to reduce friction-induced vibration and noise during the dry sliding contact of ferrous metals. These approaches were tested using a ball-on-disc sliding apparatus in which the ball was composed of Cr-bearing steel and the disc was made from forged steel. One approach was to blow air at the wear track using a hand-held rubber bulb with a nozzle, and the other was to use a magnetic field to remove loose wear debris. Results from tests run under a limited set of sliding conditions showed that although both approaches can remove wear debris, their effects on reducing unstable vibration and noise differed. Magnetic debris removal worked better in reducing unstable vibration and noise than did the alternate approach. In addition, wear debris particles accumulated in a different way for the two approaches, and the operative phenomena are explained by analyzing third-body behavior. While limited in scope to a laboratory situation, the current findings may help engineers to reduce unstable vibration and noise in related tribosystems.