The stages in a process of severe metallic wear

Abstract In order to provide information about the basic processes involved in the wear of metals, a detailed study has been made of a severe type of wear. The particular system chosen was the wear of brass against a harder material under conditions in which the debris produced is metallic. Using radioactivity methods, transfer of metal between the rubbing surfaces was determined concurrently with measurements of the total wear. In experiments at various loads, the relationship between the rates of transfer and wear was studied. Particle-size distributions of the wear debris were obtained and compared with size distributions of the transferred fragments. It is concluded that wear occurs via a layer of transferred metal and that there is no direct production of loose wear particles. The wear process has at least two distinct stages; namely, the removal of metal from the wearing surface by transfer, and the formation of wear debris from the transferred layer on the opposing member. The magnitude of the applied load determines primarily the scale of the phenomena rather than the rate at which they occur.