Two-Body Abrasive Wear of the Outside Shell Surfaces of Mollusc Lamprotula fibrosa Heude, Rapana venosa Valenciennes and Dosinia anus Philippi

Abstract

Natural biological surfaces and biomaterials have some distinguishing properties for adapting themselves to natural surroundings. The outside shell surfaces of mollusc species often undergo the abrasive wear action from the sand particles in water sand slurry in natural conditions. The two-body abrasive wear behavior of the outside shell surfaces of three mollusc species Lamprotula fibrosa Heude, Rapana venosa Valenciennes and Dosinia anus Philippi was examined. Abrasive material used for tests were quartz sand (96.5 wt.%) with three different size ranges and powdered bentonite (3.5 wt.%). The two-body abrasive wear tests were run on a rotary disc type abrasive wear testing machine. The results showed that the abrasion resistance of the outside shell surfaces of the three mollusc species was higher when the corrugations on the shell surfaces were perpendicular to the sliding direction of the abrasive material than that when the corrugations on the shell surfaces were parallel to the sliding direction of the abrasive material. Basically, the shell of Lamprotula fibrosa Heude possessed the highest abrasion resistance among the three species of shell; the abrasion resistance of the shell of Rapana venosa Valenciennes was the lowest; and the abraded depth of the three species of shell increased with an increased abrasive particle size and relative sliding velocity. The abraded surfaces were observed with scanning electron microscope.