The effect of frequency of vibration and humidity on the wear rate

Abstract

This work examines how wear rates are affected by frequency of vibration in conjunction with relative humidity. Variation of wear rate with the variation of frequency of vibration and relative humidity is investigated experimentally on a mild steel disc using specially designed pin-on-disc apparatus having facility of vibrating the disc at different frequency of vibration and amplitude. During the experiment, the effect of normal load, speed and relative humidity on wear rate were also investigated. The surface conditions of the mild steel base plate were ‘as-turned’ and ‘as-ground’. Studies have shown that wear rate under no vibration condition is higher than that under vibration condition. The values of wear rate decrease with the increase of frequency of vibration. Similarly, the wear rate decreases with the increase of relative humidity within the observed range. In this study, it is also observed that the rate of reduction of wear rate has a particular relationship on the frequency of vibration and the relative humidity. The experimental results are compared with those available in the literature and simple physical explanations are provided.