Wear Mechanism of Ceramic Materials in Dry Rolling Friction

Abstract

Wear tests in dry rolling contact were carried out at room temperature on five ceramic materials, such as silicon nitride, silicon carbide, cermet, titania, and alumina. The results showed that wear rate of silicon nitride was smaller than any of the other ceramic materials and bearing steel. Observations of worn surface and wear debris revealed that ceramic materials have two types of wear, one related to real contact area and another related to Hertzian contact area. It was also found that brittle fracture dominates the wear process of ceramic materials in dry rolling contact. Based on the experimental results, wear rate of ceramic materials was expressed with a new nondimensional parameter.