Some observations on two-body abrasive wear

Abstract Pin-on-disc-type two-body abrasion tests were carried out on five metals with seven particle sizes over a range of loads, lengths of travel and sliding speeds. The familiar results that two-body abrasive wear is proportional to load and to distance travelled were confirmed. The “size effect”, in which particles below about 100 μm produce progressively less wear, was shown to be independent of load, sliding speed and prior cold working. Increasing the sliding speed from 1 to about 100 mm s −1 produced an increase in wear resistance of about 50% for AISI 1020 steel. An increase in velocity above 100 mm s −1 had little effect on the wear resistance. Plots of the wear resistance against the hardness of the annealed metal showed significant deviations from the linear relationship reported in the literature. The result is influenced by both sliding velocity and particle size.