The Influence of Humidity on the Fretting Wear of Steel Surfaces Using Thin Layer Activation

Abstract

It is generally known that the humidity in the surrounding atmosphere influences wear processes in general. For fretting wear several authors examined the influence of humidity on the wear scar morphology and the composition of the wear debris. No agreement between the different results has been found, yet. In the present study, a distinction is made between running-in and steady-state fretting wear. Especially for the running-in stage, the influence of the humidity in ambient air on the friction and wear behavior and material transfer of steel surfaces subjected to contact vibrations has been investigated. The fretting experiments were conducted with a spherical against a flat specimen under gross-slip regime. The fretting wear and accompanying material transfer between the contacting specimens quantitatively are measured with Thin Layer Activation method. It has been observed that high ambient humidity has a beneficial influence on the running-in fretting wear of steel surfaces. It has also been found that the results of several authors concerning the influence of humidity on the fretting wear of steel have to be treated with great care, as classical wear measuring techniques can give erroneous wear results.