Effect of surface roughness on friction and wear behavior of GCr15 bearing steel under different loads

Abstract To investigate the effects of surface roughness and load on friction and wear behavior, Si 3 N 4 balls and GCr15 bearing steel were selected as the rotating friction pair. The pin-on-disc wear test was carried out under different loads and surface roughness. The experimental results indicate that as the initial surface roughness of the GCr15 bearing steel specimen and applied load increase, the width and depth of the wear tracks also increase, and the wear resistance performance deteriorates. Correlation dimension D and enclosing radius R were used to characterize the running-in quality during the stabilization wear stage. The higher the correlation dimension and the smaller the enclosing radius, the better the running-in quality. The results show that when the initial surface roughness R q is 0.009 μm, and the applied load is 40N, the corresponding correlation dimension is the highest, and the enclosing radius is the smallest, indicating the best running quality. Conversely, when the initial surface roughness is 1.192 μm, and the applied load is 20N, the corresponding correlation dimension is the smallest, and the enclosing radius is the largest, indicating the worst running-in quality. The running-in quality is related to the initial surface roughness, with lower initial surface roughness resulting in higher running-in quality. The effect of load on running-in quality is complex due to the complexity of the friction system.