The Grand Canyon in Arizona, carved out (eroded) by the Colorado river

TRIBOLOGY

TUTORIAL 3: WEAR
solutions
Dr. Jude Osara
University of Twente
Exercise 1
A hard steel surface consisting of an array of conical asperities of an average roughness angle of 30°
slides on a soft lead surface (H = 75 MPa) under a load of 10N.

1. Calculate the volume of lead displaced in unit slid distance.

2. Given that the volume of lead material removed is 10-6 m3 for a sliding distance of 1 km,
calculate the wear coefficient of lead.

Answer:

Given: roughness angle, 𝜃𝜃 = 30°, FN = 10N, Hlead = 75 MPa

1. The volume of lead displaced by all asperities in unit slid distance is

1 2
𝐹𝐹𝑁𝑁 = 𝜋𝜋𝑎𝑎 𝐻𝐻
2

𝑉𝑉𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 = 𝑎𝑎2 𝑠𝑠 tan 𝜃𝜃

𝑉𝑉𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 2𝐹𝐹𝑁𝑁 tan 𝜃𝜃 2 𝑋𝑋 10 𝑋𝑋 tan 30

= =
𝑠𝑠 𝜋𝜋𝜋𝜋 𝜋𝜋 𝑋𝑋 75 𝑋𝑋 106

= 4.9 x 10-8 m3/m

2. If Vlead = 10-6 m3, the wear coefficient of lead material

𝑉𝑉𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝐻𝐻𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 10−6 𝑋𝑋 75 𝑋𝑋 106

𝐾𝐾 = =
𝐹𝐹𝑁𝑁 𝑠𝑠 10 𝑋𝑋 103

= 7.5 x 10-3
Exercise 2
A ring is rotating around a stationary shaft, see below. The shaft is made of a very hard material
and does not show wear. The ring shows wear, increasing the clearance and ultimately limiting
the lifetime. R=30 mm, the initial clearance ∆R=10 is micrometer and the width of the bearing is
20 mm. The lifetime is reached when the clearance ∆R=50 micrometer and the wear rate k = 10-7
mm3 /Nm. The load applied is FN=100 N. The bearing rotates at 100 rpm.

1. Calculate the lifetime of the system in terms of time.

2. Suppose that the motion would be reversed, so shaft rotates and the ring is stationary
(and everything else would be the same), would the lifetime of the system be the same or
different? Explain.

Answer:
FN := 100 N

Archard wear law is

ΔV
k=
FN⋅s

Shaft radius
R := 30 mm
−6 −6
ΔRbegin := 10×10 m ΔRend := 50×10 m
Clearances
 l := 20 mm

k := 10-7 mm3/Nm
−5
ΔR :=ΔRend − ΔRbegin ΔR = 4 × 1 m

ΔV := ΔR⋅2⋅π⋅R⋅l
3
ΔV = 150.796 mm

ΔV 7
s := s = 1.508 × 10 m
FN⋅k

Rotational velocity := 100 rpm Rotational velocity = 2⋅π⋅100/60 = 10.472 rad/s

v := rotational velocity⋅R v = 10.472× 0.03 = 0.314 m/s

s
t := 3
v t = 13.334 × 10 hr

6
t = 48 × 10 s

2. If the motion is reversed, the wear would not be distributed over the total circumference,
but concentrated in one location of the ring. This means a shorter lifetime. In Dutch the
term for this is 'verlappingsgraad'.
Exercise 3
Wear experiments are performed by regularly stopping a test in a ball on disc configuration. The total
wear volume as a function of time is measured. The result of the measurements is plotted in the
graph. The load is 100 N and the sliding velocity is 0.4 m/s. The ball does not show visible wear.
Calculate the specific wear rate k after running-in and explain the calculation.

Answer:

The wear volume after running-in can be estimated from:

The

From the graph: Δ𝑉𝑉 = 0.001𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚3

Time duration between the two measurements is 500 sec, hence the sliding distance is:

𝑠𝑠 = 𝑣𝑣 ∗ 𝑡𝑡 = 500 ∗ 0.4 = 200𝑚𝑚

Given a load of FN=100N, the specific wear rate k can be calculated as:

Δ𝑉𝑉 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚3
𝑘𝑘 = = 5 ∗ 10−8
𝐹𝐹𝑁𝑁 𝑠𝑠 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁

Exercise 4
The flat face of a brass annulus having an outside diameter of 20mm and an inside diameter of 10 mm
is placed on a flat carbon steel plate under a uniform pressure load of 42440 Pa and rotates about its
axis at 100 rpm for 100 hrs. As a result of wear during the test, the mass losses of the brass and steel
are 20 mg and 1mg, respectively. (Hardness of steel = 2.5 GPa, density of steel = 7800 kg/m3, hardness
of brass = 0.8 GPa, and density of brass = 8500 kg/m3.)

Top View

(a) Calculate wear coefficients and wear depths for the brass and the steel. [5]
(b) Without adding a lubricant or changing materials, how can the engineer minimize the
interfacial wear? [1]
(c) If the lifetime of the interface is determined by total mass loss of 100 mg (with a brass loss-to-
steel loss ratio of 19:1), how long will the interface last? Assume the same wear coefficients
obtained in (a). [2]
(d) If a new brass annulus having an outside diameter of 30 mm is used, by how much will the
wear depths in (a) change? Assume the same wear coefficients obtained in (a). [2]

[Hint: To convert rotational speed to linear speed, use the average of the inner and outer radii, i.e.,
(inner radius + outer radius)/2]

Answer:

(a) Use densities to convert masses to volumes:

Δ𝑚𝑚
Δ𝑉𝑉 =
𝜌𝜌
 Wear volume Δ𝑉𝑉𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 = 2.35𝑋𝑋10−9 𝑚𝑚3 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 Δ𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 1.28𝑋𝑋10−10 𝑚𝑚3

Flat surface area of annulus 𝐴𝐴 = 𝜋𝜋(𝑅𝑅 2 − 𝑟𝑟 2 ) = 𝜋𝜋(0.012 − 0.0052 ) = 0.000236 𝑚𝑚2

Δ𝑉𝑉
Wear depth Δℎ =  Δℎ𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 = 9.99 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 Δℎ𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 0.54 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇
𝐴𝐴
𝑅𝑅+𝑟𝑟 0.01+0.005
Sliding distance 𝑠𝑠 = 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 = 𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 = 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 = (2𝜋𝜋 ∗ 100 ∗ 100 ∗ 60) = 28274.3 𝑚𝑚
2 2

Δℎ𝐻𝐻
Wear coefficients 𝐾𝐾 =  𝐾𝐾𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 = 6.658𝑋𝑋10−6 and 𝐾𝐾𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 1.134𝑋𝑋10−6
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃

(b) Via Archard’s wear law, wear rate is directly proportional to both load and speed, so reducing
one or both will reduce interfacial wear rate, assuming minimal variation in wear coefficient.

Δ𝑚𝑚𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 19 0.1
(c) Δ𝑉𝑉𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 = =� �∗ = 1.18𝑋𝑋10−8 𝑚𝑚3
𝜌𝜌 20 8.5𝑋𝑋106

Δ𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉
𝑡𝑡 = = 213.75 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾

(d) Flat surface area of annulus 𝐴𝐴 = 𝜋𝜋(𝑅𝑅2 − 𝑟𝑟 2 ) = 𝜋𝜋(0.0152 − 0.0052 ) = 0.000628 𝑚𝑚2
𝑅𝑅+𝑟𝑟 0.015+0.005
Sliding distance 𝑠𝑠 = 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 = 𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 = 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 = (2𝜋𝜋 ∗ 100 ∗ 100 ∗ 60)=
2 2
37699 m
𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾
Wear depth Δℎ = = 𝑚𝑚  Δℎ𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 = 13.3 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 Δℎ𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 0.73 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇
𝐻𝐻

Because the pressure is the same, the increase in contact area and sliding speed caused by
increased outer radius resulted in increase in wear depth.