Wear 271 (2011) 10051016

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Wear
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear

An experimental study of ball-on-at wear on a newly developed

rotational tribometer
Kris De Moerlooze, Farid Al-Bender , Hendrik Van Brussel
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Mechanical Engineering Department, Division PMA, Celestijnenlaan 300B, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: With the objective of experimentally correlating several wear-process parameters, accurately and con-
Received 23 June 2010 tinuously over the duration of a sliding test, this paper presents a novel test rig as well as experimental
Received in revised form 24 January 2011 results obtained by it. The developed test rig is a rotational one with axes supported on aerostatic bearings.
Accepted 27 January 2011
It enables online measurement of normal load, friction force, angular position and normal displacement
Available online 4 February 2011
with high accuracy. These measurements are supplemented by ante- and postmortem optical and tactile
inspection of the wear samples to determine their geometrical evolution. A set of ball-on-disc experi-
Keywords:
ments is performed, with ball materials being nylon, steel and ceramic, on hard steel disc material. The
Wear experiments
Tribometer
performed experiments correlate three process variables and parameters: normal load, wear volume and
Energy dissipation dissipated energy. The basic trends observed show that the relationship between those three variable
are quasi linear, but generally with nonzero intercepts, corresponding to energy thresholds; except that
of wear of alumina on steel.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction circumstances, such as constant normal force, velocity, tempera-

In this paper, a novel test rig for wear measurements is pre-
sented. The design and construction is discussed, whereupon a
dynamic analysis justies its effectiveness or its applicability for
friction and wear measurements.
Hereafter, experimental research is presented, in order to study
some typical wear processes in mechanical elements, and to gain
insight into the mechanisms.
1.1. An outline of tribometry
Friction characteristics have been measured for many hun-
dreds of years, sometimes on operating machines (online, on-site),
but more often under laboratory conditions, on dedicated con-
structions, called tribometers. Czichos [1] points out that
approximately 50% of the reported wear tests were carried out on
laboratory test rigs, while only 17% of the experiments were done
on actual machine elements.
Laboratory friction measurements are often designed to study
particular contact situations, material combinations and sliding
conditions, to acquire generic friction data, in order to study the
fundamental nature of friction. This is carried out in well-controlled
Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 16 32 25 35; fax: +32 16 32 29 87.
E-mail addresses: Kris.DeMoerlooze@mech.kuleuven.be,
kris.demoerlooze@leuvenairbearings.com (K. De Moerlooze).
ture and humidity. However, the measured frictional behaviour is
a property of the tribosystem and not solely of the contacting mate-
rials [2], which hampers the understanding of the fundamentals of
friction.
Tribometers can be divided according to the macro geometry
of the contact [2], enabling the imitation of the contact situation of
specic mechanical parts, such as bearings, gears and seals. Blau [2]
makes the additional distinction between tribometers for confor-
mal and for nonconformal surfaces. In conformal tests, the nominal
contact area does not change during wear, the pressure distribu-
tion is more uniform and the lm thickness for lubricated contacts
is better controllable. On the other hand, the alignment of the con-
tacts is critical, which is less stringent in nonconformal tests. The
test rig which is utilised in the presented research, is of the pin-on-
disk type. In Section 2, a detailed description of the tribometer is
given.
1.2. Wear measurement strategies
The usual way of measuring wear of materials during the
past decades, is by examining the difference in the material
before and after the experiment, through weighing, mechani-
cal gauging and/or optical inspection [3]. Weighing is probably
the easiest way of examining wear. However, the distribu-
tion of wear throughout the sliding contact, or the evolution
during the sliding experiment remains unknown. An impor-
tant aspect of the weighting method is the cleaning procedure,

0043-1648/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2011.01.027
1006 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016
which determines to a considerable extend, the accuracy of the
measurement.
The German DIN 50321 standard sums up the wear quantities
and distinguishes two categories [1]. The direct wear quantities
comprise the changes of the geometry of the sample: linear dimen-
sion, volume and cross section; the change in mass and the amount
of worn material. The relative wear quantities (or wear rates) are
the wear velocity (wear to time ratio), the wear to distance ratio,
the wear coefcient (wear volume to load and to distance) and the
dimensionless Archard wear coefcient
wear volume hardness
K = (1)
load distance
Similar to the coefcient of friction, these wear quantities should
be considered as system dependent, depending on (i) the opera-
tional conditions, (ii) the surrounding system and (iii) the materials
in contact.
With other techniques, such as mechanical gauging, e.g. by
means of tactile prolometry, one is able to establish more details
of the wear processes, not only regarding the resolution of the mea-
surement, but also the evolution of surface characteristics over the
sliding surfaces.
Other techniques comprise optical measurement strategies,
interferometry, SEM, etc. The use of radiotracers [4] has fundamen-
tally inuenced the experimental research on wear. Since then,
it was feasible to measure the wear during the process itself, in
contrast with the previous postmortem measurement techniques.
Often, the wear experiment is accompanied by the measure-
ment of other quantities, such as the friction force or torque, normal
load, environmental conditions (temperature and humidity), debris
concentration in the lubricant and vibration of components.
Beside the classical theories, the energetic approach, relating the
volume of wear to the energy dissipated by friction, is becoming
more and more important since the 1960s. Matveesky [5] intro-
duces the friction power intensity concept as a measure for the
energy dissipated per unit of contact area. Later, Plint and Alliston-
Greiner [6] introduce the concept of energy pulse, correlating the
friction power intensity with the time of the friction action. How-
ever, this concept can only be used in specic contact situations,
where the contact point is moved relative to both surfaces [7], and
is thus unsuitable for the popular unidirectional and bidirectional
tests. To this end, Mohrbacher et al. [8] consider the cumulative
dissipated energy Ed from the measured friction versus displace-
ment measurements during fretting tests. Huq and Celis [9] apply
this concept successfully to unidirectional ball-on-disk wear tests.
Both Mohrbacher et al. [8] and Huq and Celis [9] report about
a linear relationship between the generated wear volume and the
dissipated energy. This relationship is conrmed by many other
studies (e.g. Fouvry et al. [10,11], Lee et al. [12], Colaco et al. [13] and
Magaziner et al. [14]). It seems that this energetic concept reaches a
consensus in literature and becomes well established in tribological
research, given its benecial properties for the study of wear, such
as its suitability for use as a design tool, and its simplied approach
to wear tests [7].
This investigation aims at the experimental study of some typ-
ical wear processes, with the purpose of gaining insight into the
wear behaviour and its interrelation with friction. Thereupon, these
experimental results can be used to validate the theoretical mod-
elling presented in [15]. Moreover, the presented analysis differs
from traditional experimental analyses described in literature, par-
ticularly in view of the investigated correlation between wear
behaviour and energy dissipation in the contact.
The paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, the design of a
newly developed rotational tribometer is discussed. Subsequently,
this tribometer is utilised to study the friction and wear behaviour
of three material combinations, viz. steel on steel (Section 3),
alumina on steel (Section 4) and nylon on steel (Section 5). Finally,
appropriate conclusions are drawn.
2. A newly developed test rig for friction and wear
measurements
The purpose of this test rig is to measure friction and wear in
dry and lubricated circumstances. In order to be able to apply a
satisfactorily high contact pressure to the samples, a ball on disk
conguration is chosen. The ball on disk conguration has the
advantage, w.r.t. the pin on disk conguration, that the contact of
the sample with the plate is nonconformal and consequently yields
an easy and reproducible alignment of the samples. The main dis-
advantage of this nonconformal contact is that the nominal area
of contact increases due to wear, and the pressure distribution is
not necessarily uniform, as is the case in cylindrical samples. The
following design requirements must be satised:
one must be able to choose a relative displacement trajectory
between the two contacting bodies within the dynamic limita-
tions of the system, i.e. constant velocity, sinusoidal trajectories
with varying amplitude and frequency, etc.,
the normal contact force must be alterable within a reasonable
range, in order to be able to study normal load effects. The local
contact pressure in the contact can be further varied through the
choice of the size of the samples,
the possibility to study different samples, in order to establish
the inuence of material, surface properties, coatings, different
lubricants, etc.,
the upper samples must have the normal degree of freedom, in
order to permit geometrical alterations in the contact, so that the
wear has no inuence on the global normal loading of the system,
the ability to measure the relative displacement between the con-
tacting samples, the normal contact force and the friction force,
and to perform an online estimation of the wear evolution.
Fig. 1 shows a schematic cross section of the developed test rig,
while in Fig. 2, an isometric view is depicted to illustrate the friction
torque measurement. The test rig can be divided into three parts:
the actuator part, the friction part and the loading part. These parts
are decoupled as far as possible. The following paragraphs give an
overview of the different parts.
The lower part of the apparatus consists of the actuator. A
direct drive servo actuator (2)1 is used. This motor has an inter-
nal encoder2 used for position and velocity controlled operation.
The motor is connected to the main shaft (4) via a exible bellow
coupling (3). This type of coupling has sufcient exibility (in the
lateral direction and for bending) in order to set off misalignment
errors between the motor and the main shaft bearing support, com-
bined with a high torsional stiffness.3 A high torsional stiffness is
mandatory, since the position measurement is located at the motor
side of the coupling.
The main shaft is supported in the radial and axial directions
by means of an air bearing. The stiffness of the radial air bearing is
obtained by providing a sufciently small air gap of 20 m. The axial
air bearing has a theoretical net loading capacity of 300 N (exclud-
ing the preload), with a stiffness between 30 and 60 N/m (for zero
load to the maximum load of 300 N). This stiffness is obtained by
preloading the bearing by means of permanent magnets, which give
rise to a theoretical preload of 960 N. On the main shaft, the support
1
Type DMB1015 from Dynaserv Yokogawa Precision. Max. torque: 15 Nm, Rated
output: 125 W, max. speed: 2.4 rps.
2
With 163,840 pulses/rev.
3
The coupling has a torsional stiffness of 72 103 Nm/rad.
 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016
Fig. 1. Cross section of the test rig, with the following components: (1) frame, (2)
motor, (3) exible coupling, (4) main shaft, (5) main air bearing (radial and axial),
(6) magnetic ring, (7) tub, (8) sample holder disk, (9) piezoelectric force cell, (10)
air bearing, (11) sample (3), (12) capacitive proximity sensor (3), (13) sample
disk, (14) air bearing (2), (15) cantilever. Not on the gure: (16) strain gauge force
sensor (2), see Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. An isometric view of the test rig. The strain gauge force sensors (16) are
indicated.
1007
Fig. 3. Top view of the air bearing and the dynamometer: (14) air bearing, (16)
dynamometer, (17) magnets, (18) ball serving as spherical joint, (19) connecting
part, (20) bolt prestressed by spring (4), (21) threaded rod, (22) string, (23) mount-
ing part. The threaded connection between (21) and (19) permits the rotation of (19)
around the spherical joint (18). The air bearing is made of aluminium. The magnets
(17) are mounted in between steel beams in order to conduct the magnetic eld,
which results is a larger magnetic force. The magnetisation direction in indicated
on the gure.
for the sample disk is bolted. The support is designed as a tub, in
order to foresee the facility to utilise uid lubricants during the
experiments.
The friction part holds the samples with their support. The lower
frictional element is a disk, supported by and connected to the
tub. The upper frictional elements are three sample balls, each of
which is glued to a sample holder, which is mounted on the sam-
ple holder disk (8). Different mounting positions on this disk are
foreseen, in order to enable one to perform experiments with the
samples following the same circular path on the counter disk, or
with the samples making different circular trajectories. The rst
conguration gives rise to mutual inuencing of the frictional and
wear behaviour of the different samples, which causes an averaging
effect. In the second conguration, the samples follow separate tra-
jectories, thus experience different contact velocities. Additionally,
since the normal load is applied centrally w.r.t. the main axis, the
samples are loaded differently in this case.4 The maximum attain-
able sliding velocity is approximately 1 m/s, while the maximal
contact load on one sample is limited to 100 N.
Two S-beam dynamometers are used to measure the frictional
torque. These sensors are based on strain gauge measurement, thus
one is able to measure the DC component of the friction force. In
order to guarantee the alignment of the force sensors during the
measurements, the force cells are not rigidly connected to the frame
of the test rig. Instead, a magnetically preloaded rectangular air
bearing is used, which permits the motion in the plane perpen-
dicular to the main axis of the force cell. The rotational degree of
freedom is provided by connecting the force cell to the bearing by
means of a preloaded ball contact. Fig. 3 shows a schematic view
of the preloaded air bearing and the dynamometer. Minimal com-
pliance in the direction of measurement is obtained by designing
a stiff air bearing. This is obtained by the magnetic preload and
the pocket design of the four-pad air bearing. At a working pres-
sure of 4 bar, a theoretical air gap of 10 m is obtained, resulting
in a stiffness of 32 N/m. Given this stiffness of the force cell sus-
pension, the decision was made to provide an additional position
measurement, measuring the relative rotation of the upper con-
tact w.r.t. the lower contact, when performing measurements with
sinusoidal position input. In Fig. 4, a detailed view of the mounting
of the strain gauge force cell is shown. A mounting element (23)
connects the dynamometer (16) to the sample holder disk (8). This
4
The difference in load and velocity between the highest loaded/fastest and the
lightest loaded/slowest contact is 1 vmin /vmax = 1 Wmin /Wmax 23%. Obviously,
the sample with the slowest contact velocity supports the highest normal load.
1008 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016
Fig. 4. Detailed view of the mounting of the strain gauge force cell: (1) frame, (14)
air bearing, (16) strain gauge force sensor, (17) magnets as preloading mechanisms
for the air bearing, (18) ball serving as spherical joint, (19) connection part, (20) bolt
prestressed by spring (4), (21) threaded rod, (22) string with preloading bold, (23)
mounting for the sensor.
mounting is additionally connected with the frame by means of a
steel string (22), in order to prevent motion of the sample holder
disk in this direction, without restricting other degrees of freedom.
The dynamometer is connected to the plate (19) with a threaded rod
(21), in order to provide an alignment mechanism. The threaded rod
and the plate are connected to the air bearing (14) with a ball (18) in
between. The ball is preloaded by means of 4 bolts, each equipped
with a spring. This mechanism enables the air bearing to set off
alignment errors of its target surface, w.r.t. the force axis of the
dynamometer, without restricting more degrees of freedom than
necessary. The air bearing itself is preloaded by means of magnets
(17).
Fig. 5(a) and (b) provides images of the steel disks and the sam-
ples glued in the sample holder, respectively. In order to enable one
to measure the wear online during the experiment, the upper con-
tact is equipped with three capacitive distance probes (12). These
are mounted on the sample disk holder. These probes have the rim
of the tub containing the sample disks, as target. Consequently, the
measurement signal of these sensors contains the prole of the
target, the prole of the sample disk and the wear effect of the
contacting bodies. By considering the relative displacement in the
normal direction as function of the rotational position, the parasitic
components are reduced as far as possible.
The loading part consists of a cantilever, which can be acted
upon by different payloads. A piezoelectric force cell is used to
Fig. 5. (a) Two steel samples disks, cleaned after wear experiment. (b) Steel sample balls glued in their sample holder.
measure the normal load. A at circular air bearing is used to sep-
arate the loading part from the frictional part. In this way, the
frictional behaviour is not affected by inertial effects originating
from the payload. The air bearing is connected to the force cell
via a ball joint which enables the bearing to rotate and adapt its
orientation to the sample holder disk.
Based on a dynamic evaluation of the test rig, which is described
in Appendix A, a controller is developed both for velocity and posi-
tion controlled operation.
2.1. Experimental procedure
The experimental procedure is as follows. The steel disks have a
ground surface. Before the experiments, the sample balls and disk
are cleaned thoroughly with ethanol. Prior contact prolometry is
carried out to verify the surface properties of the samples. Subse-
quently, the samples are mounted in the test rig. The experiments
are carried out at room temperature, while the ambient tempera-
ture and humidity are measured. The normal load is applied, and
simultaneously, the normal displacement measurement is used to
measure the normal deformation of the samples. Next, an exci-
tation is applied to the sample disk (constant velocity, sinusoidal
oscillation, . . .), while the position of the disk, the normal displace-
ment of the sample holder and the frictional torque are measured
online. After the experiment, the samples are removed from the
tribometer and prolometry and optical microscopy are used to
examine the surfaces. To determine the wear volume at the end
of the experiment, a volume integration procedure is used based
on the prolometry data. With the volume integration procedure,
one obtains more accurate results for wear scars that are not at
or circular, and it distinguishes plastic deformation from mate-
rial removal [16]. Moreover, the prolometry measurement offers
more valuable information concerning the surface evolution during
the experiment. Optical microscopy can reveal information about
the wear particles or surface aspects which are not quantiable by
means of prolometry.
In the rest of this paper, experimental results are presented and
discussed, based on a unidirectional wear experiment. For different
material combinations, experiments are carried out with a constant
sliding velocity. The energy dissipation rate in the contact is altered
through the modication of the normal load. For the disk material,
AISI 1045 steel is utilised, while for the ball material, steel, nylon
and alumina are the principal materials.
3. Experimental results for steel on steel
In this section, the results for steel on steel are presented. For
the steel balls, chromium steel is used. The experiments are carried
out at a rotational velocity of 3 rad/s and for a sliding distance
 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016 1009

10 7

8 142.36N
6
Friction torque [Nm]

Friction torque M [Nm]

6
5

f
4
4
92.88N
2
88.40N
3 81.50N
0
74.54N
2 70.66N
2 60.75N
53.87N
4 1 46.13N
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
32.32N
revolutions []
0
Fig. 6. Evolution of the rough data of the friction torque as function of time, for a 0 2000 4000 6000 8000
normal load of 88.40 N. Angular displacement [rad]

corresponding to 1000 revolutions. Because of the position-
dependent friction, the measured friction torque signal uctuates
appreciably. In order to avoid this position dependency hamper-
ing the interpretation of the results, the frictional torque signal is
averaged over one revolution. In Fig. 6, the rough data for the fric-
tion torque as function of time, is depicted. One can clearly observe
how the variation of the friction torque increases during the rst
part of the experiment, and thereafter stabilises. This variation is
attributed to the effect of linear grinding marks on the surface nish
of the disk. Fig. 7 illustrates a detail of the results, before stabilisa-
tion of the friction torque, indicating one revolution, showing that
variation.
In Fig. 8, the results of this averaged friction torque is shown as
function of the angular displacement, for different normal loads.
One can distinguish the strongly increasing friction torque during
the running-in phase, to end up with a maximum, after which a
decrease is noticed. For the experiments with low normal load, the
friction torque stabilises after the running-in period. For the high-
est normal load (W = 142.36 N), the behaviour of the friction torque
remains uctuating. After the peak, the reduction of the friction
torque can be explained by the formation of protective transfer
layers on the contacting surfaces [17,18]. After a number of revolu-
tions, this layer is formed, resulting in a lower friction torque. The
layer formation and breakdown is, however, a continuous process,
which can reach an equilibrium in the case of relatively low energy
dissipation in the contact (in the case of low normal load), or remain
unstable, which seems to happen in the case of the highest normal
load, as can be seen in the signal of the averaged friction torque.
Fig. 8. Evolution of the averaged friction torque as function of the angular displace-
ment, for different normal loads (steel on steel, for 1000 revolutions).
Cho and Lee [18] study the effect of oxide layer formation during
the sliding of titanium nitride coated balls on a steel disk. They nd
that the oxide layer, formed by adhesive wear, dominates the fric-
tion characteristics and induces friction transitions towards higher
dissipation rates.
Kong et al. [17] study the friction and wear of dry sliding steel
surfaces under different vacuum conditions, in order to under-
stand the mechanisms of wear in vacuum. They nd a signicant
reduction of the frictional dissipation and the wear, caused by the
formation of Fe3 O4 steel oxides on the surface. They distinguish a
critical regime of the contact conditions for the effective formation
of such protective lms on mild steels.
In Fig. 9, the evolution of the mean normal displacement, as
an average of the signal of the three capacitive sensors, is plotted
as function of the angular displacement, for a typical experiment
(normal load W = 70.66 N). This graph represents the mean normal
displacement (=approach) of the top plate w.r.t. the disk support,
i.e. the evolution of the normal wear depth of balls and disk during
the experiment. One can notice a constant trend up to 400 rad, after
which a sharp negative trend can be observed, i.e. the ball samples
are lifted. This can be explained by the initial transfer layer for-
mation. We believe that the specic volume of this layer is larger
than the original steel material. After 500 rad, an increase of the
wear depth is observed. This increase is quasi linear up to 1000 rad,
30

25
mean normal displacement [m]

1.4

20
1.3

15
1.2
Friction torque [Nm]

10
1.1

5
1
0
0.9
5
0.8
10
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
0.7
34 34.5 35 35.5 36 36.5 37 37.5 38 angular displacement [rad]
revolutions []
Fig. 9. Evolution of the mean wear depth of the combined ball and disk for a normal
Fig. 7. Detail of the rough friction data. load W = 77.66 N (steel on steel, for 1000 revolutions).
1010 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016

x 10 10 x 10 4
(a) 2 (b) 4

total wear volume Vw [m3]

1.5 3

Ed [J]
1 2

0.5 1

0 0
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
normal load W [N] normal load W [N]

Fig. 10. (a) Evolution of the total wear volume of the steel disks as function of the normal loads (with 3 tolerance interval indicated). (b) Evolution of the total energy
dissipation as function of the normal load (steel on steel experiments, for 1000 revolutions).

after which it saturates towards a lower rate regime. From 2000 rad x 1010
onwards, a constant wear rate (as function of wear depth) seems 2
to be established. Similar behaviour is observed during the other

total wear volume Vw [m3]

experiments with steel on steel.
The wear volume of the steel balls is much lower than the wear
volume measured on the steel disk, since the wear-resistance prop-
erties of the steel balls are better than the steel of the disk. The wear
mechanisms involved are mainly adhesive and oxidative wear [19].
Fig. 10(a) shows the total measured wear volume (of the three
tracks together) of the steel disk after 1000 revolutions, as function
of the normal load. A quasi linear trend between the total wear
volume and the normal load is observed. One can also observe how
the linear extrapolation of the measurement does not cross the ori-
gin, but presents a small shift along the normal load abscissa. This
critical load is necessary in order to obtain wear particles. Conse-
quently, we may expect that a lower normal load will not be capable
of propagating cracks within a sliding distance equivalent to 1000
revolutions, with the nality of debris formation.
From the friction torque and the angular displacement mea-
surement, one can easily calculate the frictional dissipated energy
during the experiment, by calculating the integral of the friction
torque over the angular displacement. The results for the different
experiments are shown in Fig. 10(b), where the dissipated energy
Ed is plotted as function of the normal load. The linear evolution of
the dissipated energy as function of the normal load in the mea-
surement interval is evident. However, similar to the evolution of
the wear volume as function of the normal load (Fig. 10(a)), the
linear extrapolation shows a positive shift along the x abscissa.
The wear volume can be related to the energy dissipation in
the contact. This is shown in Fig. 11. Once again, a linear trend for
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 1 2 3 4
energy dissipation Ed [J] x 104
Fig. 11. Evolution of the total wear volume of the steel disks as function of the energy
dissipation (steel on steel experiments, for 1000 revolutions (with 3 tolerance
interval indicated).
low Ed is observable. From this trend, one can conclude that for this
wear situation, the energy dissipation is a good measure to quantify
the wear loss. The shift along the energy abscissa is explained for
metallic contacts by Fouvry et al. [10,20], as the threshold energy
Edth , required to rst transform the metallic structure before gen-
erating wear particles. Fig. 12(b) shows a microscopic image of the
worn contact patch of one of the balls. The wear patch is not circu-
lar, which we expected from the contact situation of the worn ball
and the worn disk prole. The disk is shown in Fig. 13(a), where the
debris of the wear experiment is still present in and near the contact

Fig. 12. (a) Microscopic image of a groove on the steel disk. (b) Microscopic image of the wear patch on a steel ball.
 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016 1011

Fig. 13. (a) An image of the steel disk after the wear experiment. Debris is partially squeezed out of the contact zone. (b) Prole measurement of a typical (cleaned) wear
track on the steel disk.

Table 1 6
Overview of the material properties of alumina.

Material property Unit Value 132.11 N

5
Grade Name 99.5A

Friction torque [Nm]

Normal purity % 99.5 143.96 N
Density 103 kg/m3 3.87
4
119.00 N
Vickers hardness (Hv) 106 kg/m2 1700
Compressive strength GPa 2.28 108.46 N
3
Youngs modulus GPa 365 96.66 N
Fracture toughness kg/mm1.5 13.5 80.20 N
Coeff. of thermal exp. 106 / C 8.1 2 69.80 N
Thermal conductivity J/(m s C) 29.29
Specic heat J/(kg C) 836.8 55.33 N
1 46.59 N

32.32 N
zone. Fig. 12(a) shows a microscopic image of the disk track. The 0
roughness of the steel disk increases signicantly in the contact 0 2000 4000 6000 8000
patch, due to the micro cutting of the debris. During some experi- rotation angle [rad]
ments, ridge formation was noticed, as can be seen on the prole
of the disks cross section in Fig. 13(b) and the optical image of Fig. 14. Evolution of the averaged friction torque as function of the angular dis-
placement, for different normal loads (alumina on steel).
Fig. 12(a). This can be explained by the plastic deformation and the
macroscopic ploughing of the ball on the disk.
phenomenon takes place as in the case with the steel on steel
4. Experimental results for alumina on steel experiments. However, the interplay between the abrasive work-
ing of the alumina particles and the transfer layer formation of the
In a subsequent set of experiments, the steel balls are replaced steel debris, seems to be less stable during the start of the exper-
by alumina balls of the same diameter. In Table 1, the most impor- iment. After 500 rad, the trend shows an increasing wear depth,
tant properties of the alumina are listed. Similar behaviour is however, with a decreasing slope, which can be explained by the
noticed in the evolution of the friction torque as function of the increasing wear patch and the consequently reduced contact stress.
angular displacement (see Fig. 14), however, a smaller peak dur- Similarly as with the steel on steel experiments, a linear trend can
ing the running-in period is noticed. A similar trend towards less
stabilising behaviour is noticed for higher normal loads, which can
40
anew be attributed to the layer formation/breakdown equilibrium.
In Fig. 15, the evolution of the mean normal displacement is plotted
as function of the angular displacement. The normal load W during 30
this experiment was 73.43 N. One can observe the variation dur-
ing the rst 500 rad, with two extrema. We believe that a similar
mean(z) [m]

20
Table 2
Overview of the material properties of nylon, according to [24].
10
Material property Unit Value

Yield stress MPa 55

Nominal strain at break % >100 0
Yield strain % 25
Tensile modulus MPa 1400
Poissons ratio 0.41
10
Flexural modulus MPa 2800 0 2000 4000 6000 8000

Melting temperature C 262
[rad]
Density kg/m3 1140
Water absorption 50% RH % 2.6
Fig. 15. Evolution of mean wear depth of the combined ball and disk wear, normal
Water absorption immersed % 8.5
load W = 73.43 N (alumina on steel).
1012 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016

x 10 4 x 1010
4 4

total wear volume V [m3]

3
3

w
2
Ed [J]

1
1 Al2O on steel
3
steel on steel
0
0 1 2 3 4
4
0
0 50 100 150
energy dissipation Ed [J] x 10

normal load W [N] Fig. 19. Comparison between the steel on steel experiments and the alumina on
steel experiments, total wear mass of the steel disk as function of the dissipated
Fig. 16. Evolution of the energy dissipation as function of the normal load (alumina energy (with 3 tolerance interval indicated).
on steel experiments).

be noticed between the energy dissipation and the normal load in
Fig. 16. Fig. 17(a) shows the evolution of the measured total disk
wear (i.e. wear of the steel) as function of the normal load, and in
Fig. 17(b) as function of the energy dissipation. Here, a saturation
of the wear volume with higher normal load or energy dissipa-
tion is observable, however, the measurement holds considerable
scatter. This can be explained by the abrasive operation of the alu-
mina wear particles in the contact. For low loads, an increase in
load results in more abrasive particles in the contact, and conse-
quently more micro cutting of the steel surface. For higher loads, the
additional formation of alumina wear particles does not necessarily
means a higher micro cutting rate, since the amount of debris in the
contact zone restricts the increase in cutting rate. The inter-
cept with the x abscissa shows in Fig. 17(a) and (b) a similar
shift along the x abscissa as it is the case in the results for
steel on steel. The abrasive wear scars also appear on the
alumina surface. This is shown in the microscopic image of
Fig. 18, showing the wear patch of an alumina ball. In Fig. 19,
a comparison is made between the evolution of the wear vol-
ume of the steel disk as function of the dissipated energy,

Fig. 17. (a) Wear volume of the steel disk as function of the normal load. (b) Wear volume of the steel disk in function of the dissipated energy (with 3 tolerance interval
indicated).

Fig. 18. (a) Microscopic image of a wear patch on the alumina ball. The arrow indicated the sliding direction. (b) Detailed view.
 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016 1013

5 of gears, due to its low cost, the ease to produce complex shapes and
its ability to operate in unlubricated conditions [21]. Compared to
230.09 N metallic gears, thermoplastics suffer from a poor heat transfer coef-
4 cient. Nylon tends to lose 510% of its tensile strength for every
10 C increase in temperature [22]. According to experimental data,
friction torque Mf [Nm]

184.08 N
up to 90% of the mechanical energy is lost via heat [23]. Friction-
3 166.29 N generated heat therefore has a major inuence on the materials
142.21 N performance [21]. The heat generated in the contact originates from
124.74 N sliding frictional losses and viscoelastic losses, where the former
2 is much larger than the latter in the case of a ball-on-disk experi-
105.54 N
ment. During the experiments, the heat is dissipated by conduction
88.42 N
through the sample ball and the steel disk, by convection and radi-
1 69.93 N
ation. The raised temperature causes a relaxation of the polymer
50.61 N molecule chains, giving rise to changing mechanical and chemi-
32.32 N cal properties. Compared to the metal on metal experiments, for
0 the present experiments, the temperature inuence is much more
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
pronounced, owing to (i) the strong temperature dependence of the
angular displacement [rad]
polymer material and (ii) the appreciable temperature rise caused
Fig. 20. Evolution of the averaged friction torque as function of the angular dis- by poor thermal conductivity. Table 2 gives an overview of the most
placement, for different normal loads (nylon on steel). important properties of the nylon used during the experiments.

5.1. Wear modes for polymers

for the case of steel balls on steel and for the case of alumina balls
on steel. The inuence of the harder alumina affecting the wear rate
The wear of polymers is strongly dependent on the character-
of the steel disk, is clearly visible.
istics of the structure, the chemical interactions and the transfer
lm formation on the counter surface. The local interface tempera-
5. Experimental results for nylon on steel ture is usually substantially higher than the ambient temperature,
also because of hot-spots at local asperity contact. These mecha-
Due to its strength, stiffness and toughness, Nylon has earned nisms and their interaction hamper a precise classication of the
its reputation as engineering plastic. Together with acetal (poly- wear processes taking place in polymer contacts. However, the
oxymethylene), Nylon (polyamide) is widely used in the production most important types of wear of polymers are generally abrasion,

(a) (b) x 10
4
80 3
mean normal displacement [m]

2.5
60
2
Ed [J]

40 1.5

1
20
0.5

0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 0 50 100 150 200 250
angular displacement [rad] normal load W [N]

Fig. 21. (a) Evolution of mean wear depth of the combined ball and disk wear, normal load W = 69.93 N. (b) Evolution of the energy dissipation as function of the normal load
(nylon on steel experiments).

8 8
x 10 x 10
(a) 15 (b) 15
total wear volume Vw [m3]
total wear volume V [m ]
3

10
10
w

5
0

0 5
0 50 100 150 200 250 0 1 2 3

normal load W [N] energy dissipation Ed [J] 4

x 10

Fig. 22. (a) Wear volume of the nylon balls as function of the normal load. (b) Wear volume of the nylon balls in function of the dissipated energy.
1014 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016

Fig. 23. (a) Microscopic image of the transfer layer on the steel disk. (b) Wear patch image of the nylon ball.

5.2. Results

The deformation of the asperities exhibit elastic, plastic or vis-

coelastic behaviour. In Fig. 20, the evolution of the frictional torque

3
x 10
6

Amplitude [rad/Nm]
A=0.015 rad
4 A=0.03 rad
A=0.06 rad
2

2
0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10

200

Fig. 24. In only a few experiments, the steel disk was scratched after the experiment. 100
Phase []

The width of the wear track on the nylon balls equals approximately 1.2 mm.
0

100

adhesion and fatigue [23], similar to those for metals, however, 200
0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10
without the assistance of oxidation.
Frequency [Hz]
Abrasive wear can occur in two forms. In a rst form, called two-
body abrasion, harder particles of the counter surface are ploughing Fig. 25. FRFs using the multisine input for different excitation levels. As input, the
or cutting the polymer asperities. When the hard particles come applied torque to the system is considered, the output is the angular position of the
loose in the contact, or become embedded into the counter surface, motor. Normal load W = 67 N. The arrow shows the shift with increasing excitation
amplitude.
three-body abrasion takes place.
Abrasive wear is characterised by scratches and scores on the
0
surface, while the debris has the shape of micro cutting chips.
Adhesive wear originates from the shearing of junctions. This
Amp(rad/Nm)

wear mechanism is characterised by the transfer of material from 50

one surface to the other. Gao et al. [25] describe this polymer trans-
fer layer formation on steel. The primary layer formation on the 100
steel surface, is subjected to mechanical embedment and static
electric attraction. Due to the frictional shearing, the transfer layer 150
0 1 2
might be removed to form wear debris particles, or to re-adhere 10 10 10
Hz
onto the polymer and polymerise with the bulk polymer. On the A=0.025 rad
Bode Plot
other hand, when the adhesive bonding with the steel disk is 100 A=0.0375 rad
A=0.05 rad
strong, and the polymer chains can slide easily, the transfer layer 50 A=0.0625 rad
is less sensitive to breakdown. Due to its spherocrystal structure,
Phase( )

0
the molecule chains of Nylon have certain sliding properties [25].
With increasing relative motion, the chemical bonding between 50
the transfer layer and the metal increases, and consequently, the 100
adhesive strength of the layer increases.
150
Fatigue is known as the change of the material due to repeated 10
0
10
1 2
10
stressing, resulting in progressive fracture. These loading cycles Hz
cause an accumulation of surface alterations, giving rise to crack
Fig. 26. FRFs using the stepped sine excitation for different excitation levels (normal
initiation and propagation. load W = 67 N. The arrow shows the shift with increasing excitation amplitude.
 K. De Moerlooze et al. / Wear 271 (2011) 10051016
is plotted as function of the angular displacement, for different nor-
mal loads. The variation of the friction torque (i.e. rate of increase)
during the running-in period, increases with increasing normal
load. In Fig. 21(a), the evolution of the mean normal displacement
is plotted as function of the angular displacement for a normal load
W of 69.93 N. The mean wear depth of the ball (since the steel
disk shows no noticeable wear), increases with the angular dis-
placement, however, with a decreasing slope. No initial phenomena
deviating from the general trend, are observed, as has been the case
in the steel on steel and alumina on steel experiments.
In Fig. 22(b), the linear evolution of the dissipated energy as
function of the normal load is shown. Although a similar shift is
visible at the intercept with the x abscissa as for the previously
presented experiments, a smaller amount of energy needs to be
dissipated, prior to the creation of the rst measurable wear vol-
ume. In Fig. 22, the wear volume of the nylon balls is plotted as
function of the normal load (Fig. 22(a)) and the energy dissipa-
tion (Fig. 22(b)), respectively. The trends are fairly linear, however,
around 200 N normal load, a deviation form the linear trend is
noticed. Fig. 23(a) shows a typical microscopic image of the steel
disk, when the steel is not worn. Debris particles are clearly visible
on the picture, together with the nylon transfer layer adhering to
the steel [25]. Fig. 23(b) shows a microscopic image of the wear
patch of a typical nylon ball. The nylon debris adheres around the
trailing edge.
Polymer transfer to the steel disk takes place when the inter-
facial bonding is stronger than the cohesive bonding of the
polymer. In polymers, the surface forces and internal cohesive
forces between polymer chains, are nearly equal [23]. Sometimes
however, this is not the case. Myshkin et al. [23] report on obser-
vations where the metal is transferred to the polymer. In only a
few of the experiments, damage of the steel disk was observed.
In Fig. 24, a photograph of the steel disk is shown, obtained by
means of optical microscopy. The wear track is indicated. The wear
track shows a regular pattern in the contact zone on the disk, thus
it is assumed that an abrasive particle was embedded into the
polyamide ball, which served as a means to scratch the steel disk.
Although the damage on the steel disk is too small to observe in the
wear measurement, the friction measurement is inuenced by this
phenomenon.
6. Discussion and conclusions
In this paper, the sliding wear process is investigated exper-
imentally for different material combinations. For this purpose,
a rotational tribometer is designed and built, which enables the
online measurement of the normal load, the friction force, the
angular position and the normal displacement. Optical inspec-
tion and tactile prolometry was applied to the antemortem
and postmortem samples, in order to characterise the surface
topography before and after the wear experiment. A dynamic
analysis of the test rig is presented, in order to justify its appli-
cations in the presented experimental study. A ball on disk
conguration is chosen, given its advantages compared to other
congurations.
For the steel on steel experiments, the evolution of the fric-
tion force as function of angular displacement is discussed, where
attention is paid to the normal load dependency. The evolution of
the wear depth is discussed, based on the online measurement as
on the volume determination based on the prolometry after the
wear experiment. A linear trend is observed for the wear volume as
function the the applied normal load. Additionally, the energy dis-
sipation is considered as a measure to quantify the wear volume.
A linear trend of the wear volume as function of the dissipated
energy during the experiment is observed, however, with a shift
1015
along the energy abscissa, which can be explained in accordance
with the concept of threshold energy Edth from the work of Fouvry
et al. [10,20].
Similar trends are noticed for the contact of alumina on steel.
However, the presence of harder abrasive particles results in a
higher micro cutting rate, resulting in a higher wear rate. For the
alumina on steel experiments, a saturation is observed for the wear
of the steel disk as function of the normal load and the dissipated
energy. This can be explained by the abrasive working of particles
in the contact. When a sufcient amount of particles is present in
the contact, then the additional formation of wear particles do not
necessarily mean a higher micro cutting rate.
Finally, some experiments are presented for the contact of nylon
on steel. Here, the friction torque behaves in a more controlled
manner during the course of the experiments. A linear evolution
of the dissipated energy as function of the normal load in noticed.
The polymer transfer layer is clearly visible during optical micro-
scopic observation after the wear experiment. The transfer layer
formation is mainly responsible for the observed friction and wear
behaviour. The evolution of the wear volume of the nylon balls
as function of the dissipated energy shows a linear trend, how-
ever, with a smaller shift along the energy abscissa, compared to
the steel on steel and alumina on steel experiments. This indicates
that the crack propagation and material transformation occurs at
lower energy levels, which is comprehensible from the material
properties of the polymer.
Appendix A. Dynamic evaluation of the test rig
In order to design an appropriate controller for the rotational
position, a dynamic evaluation of the tribometer is mandatory. This
analysis permits one to design a linear controller based on the fre-
quency response function (FRF). Therefore, the applied torque is
measured when a rotational position of the actuator is applied.
In order to overcome drift in the system (inherent to the control
of the motor), a (weak) proportional controller is implemented
into the position loop. Fig. 25 shows the measured FRFs using a
multisine excitation with different excitation amplitudes. The mul-
tisine has a random phase and a bandwidth of 500 Hz. For each
measurement, 4 different multisines are applied, each of which is
averaged over 10 periods. For low excitation amplitudes, the sys-
tem behaves quasi linearly up to 200 Hz; when a higher excitation
amplitude is applied, a nonlinear effect can be observed, i.e. an evo-
lution towards the mass line, due to the hysteretic behaviour of
the frictional contacts [26]. In Fig. 26, the results are shown for a
stepped sine excitation. With a stepped sine excitation, the non-
linear behaviour of the system, due to the friction in the contacts,
is evident: the FRF is strongly dependent on the excitation level.
The strongly nonlinear behaviour is also observable from the dif-
ference in amplitude at low frequencies, comparing the multisine
and the stepped sine excitation. From the previous analysis, one
can conclude that the achieved bandwidth is sufcient to perform
low velocity wear experiments. In order to control the position or
velocity of the lower contact, an appropriate controller is designed
based on linear control theory.
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