Correlation between groove size, wear rate and topography of abraded surfaces

Abstract Surface profiling or scanning electron microscopy of worn surfaces always reveals a spectrum of wear scar sizes. Each size interval contributes to a certain fraction of the total wear rate and the ranking of different materials with respect to wear resistance may differ between different wear scar sizes. Knowledge of the correlation between, for example, the surface area fraction covered by different wear scar size intervals and their contribution to the wear rate is of interest for materials selection based on results from different wear tests and selecting test parameters for the simulation of a desired application. For this reason a numerical model for abrasive wear has been developed which provides a correlation between the resulting surface topography and the groove sizes of individual grooving events. Numerical examples are given for the different geometries of the abrading tip.