Introduction

ABRASIVE WEAR, as defined by ASTM (Ref 1), is due to hard particles or hard protuberances that
are forced against and move along a solid surface. Wear, in turn, is defined as damage to a solid
surface that generally involves progressive loss of material and is due to relative motion between
that surface and a contacting substance or substances.

The cost of abrasion is high and has been estimated as ranging from 1 to 4% of the gross national
product of an industrialized nation. The effect of abrasion is particularly evident in the industrial
areas of agriculture, mining, mineral processing, earth moving, and essentially wherever dirt, rock,
and minerals are handled. Examples include plows, ore loading/moving buckets, erushers, and
dump truck beds.

When two surfaces contact, wear occurs on both surfaces. Individuals and industry tend to focus
on th wearing Surface that has the greatest potential for their own economic loss, and consider
the other surface to be the abrasive. For example, an individual walking up the stairs of a building
would be more likely to think that his shoes, rather than the stairs, were experiencing abrasive
wear, whereas the maintenance staff would have the opposite opinion. In actually, both surfaces
are being subjected to abrasive wear.

The rate at which the surfaces abrade depends on the characteristics of each surface, the presence
of abrasives between the first and second surfaces, the speed of contact, and other environmental
conditions. In short, loss rates are not inherent to a material. With reference to the above
example, changing the material of either the shoes or the steps could, and often would, change
the wear on the opposite counter-face. The addition of an abrasive, such as a layer of sand, on the
steps would further change the situation, in that the sand would be the second surface that
contacts both the shoes and the steps.

Abrasion is typically categorized according to types of contact, as well as contact environment.

Types of contact include two-body and three-body wear. The former occurs when an abrasive
slides along a surface , and the latter, when an abrasive is caught between one surface and
another. Two-body systems typically experience from 10 to 1000 times as much loss as three-body
systems for a given load and path length of wear. Contact environments (Fig. 1) are classified as
either open (free) or closed (constrained).

Free-flow ore A

Machining B

Plow penetrating sandy soil C

Jaw crusher D

Fig. 1 Types of contact during abrasive wear. (a) Open two-body. (b) Closed two-body. (c) Open
three-body.

(d) Closed three-body

In several different tests, Blickensderfer et a1. (Ref 2) showed that for a given load and path length
of wear, the wear rate is about the same for both open and closed systems. However,
measurements of the loss in closed systems will often appear higher than the loss in open
systems. This probably occurs because most closed systems experience higher loads.

Abrasion is often further categorized as being low stress, high stress, or gouging. Low-stress
abrasion occurs when the abrasive remains relatively intact, for example, when sanding wood with
sandpaper. High-stt‘ess abrasion exists when abrasive panicles are being crushed, for example, in a
ball mill where both the grinding balls and the are are down. In gouging abrasion, a relatively large
abrasive will cut the material that is not fully work hardened by the process from the material of
concern, for example, when rocks are crushed in jaw crusher.

Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how material is removed from a surface
during abrasion. These mechanisms include fracture, fatigue, and melting. Because of the
complexity of abrasion, no one mechanism completely accounts for all the loss. F igure 2 depicts
some of the processes that are possible when a single abrasive tip traverses a surface. They
include plowing, wedge formation, cutting, microfatigue, and microcracking.

Plowing Microfatinue

Wedge Micmcracking

Cutting

Fig. 2 Five processes of abrasive wear

Plowing is the process of displacing material from a groove to the sides. This occurs under light
loads and does not result in any real material loss. Damage occurs to the near surface of the
material in the form of a build up of dislocations through cold work. It‘ later scratches occur on
this cold-werked surface, then the additional work could result in loss through microfatigue.
When the ratio of shear strength of the contact interface relative to the shear strength of the bulk
rises to a high enough level (from 0.5 to 1.0], it has been found that a wedge can develop on the
front of an abrasive tip. In this case, the total amount of material displaced from the groove is
greater than the material displaced to the sides. This wedge formation is still a fairly mild form of
abrasive wear.

The most severe form of wear for ductile material is cutting. During the cutting process, the
abrasive tip removes a chip, much like a machine tool does. This results in removed material, but
very little displaced material relative to the size of the groove. For a sharp abrasive particle, a
critical angle exists, for which there is a transition from plowing to cutting. This angle depends on
the material being abraded. Examples of critical angles range from 45° for copper to 85° for
aluminum {Ref 3, 4). Abrasion is not dependent on scratches by carefully oriented abrasive grains.
Kate (Ref 5) and others have analyzed the effect of a rounded tip pushing through a surface.

For ductile materials, the mechanisms of plowing, wedge formation, and cutting have been
observed (Fig. 3). It was found that the degree of penetration was critical to the transition from
plowing and wedge formation to cutting. When the degree of penetration, defined as depth of
penetration divided by the contact area, exceeded about ()2, cutting was the predominant mode
of wear.

Fig. 3 Examples of three process of abrasive wear, observed using a scanning electron microscope.
(a) Cutting. (b) Wedge formation. (c) Plowing. Source: Ref 5

When an abrasive grain abrades while cutting a surface, the maximum volume of wear that can
occur is described by:

W = Ad {Eq 1)

where W is the volume of material removed, A is the cress-sectional area of the groove, and d is
the distance slid. The cross—seetional area of the groove A is dependent on the abrasive grain
shape and the depth of penetration. p:

A=k1p (Eq2)

where k. is eonstant-dependent en the shape. In turn, the depth of penetration, p, is again

dependent on the shape of the grain; the load, L; and the hardness, H, of the material:

p=k2(L/H) E3
Many factors affect it]: the possibility of plowing rather than cutting; the abrasive grain may roll
and avoid wear; the abrasive grain may break down and not be effective during the latter part of
its contact path; and others. Equation 1, 2, and 3 can be combined, forming:

W=k3(Ld/H) (Eq4)

This is commonly known as Arehard‘s equation (Ref 6), which was derived for adhesive wear but
has proven very useful in abrasive wear, as well. F actors affecting k3 are addressed below.

Commonly, materials are described as having good or bad wear resistance, R, which is simply
defined as the reciprocal of wear volume:

R=(I/W) {Eq 5)

Brittle materials have an additional mode Ofabrasive wear, namely, microfraeture. This occurs
when forces applied by the abrasive grain exceed the fracture toughness of the material. This is
often the predominant mode ofsevere wear for the ceramic materials, and is active in materials
such as white east irons.

Melting or other thermallyr related mechanisms of less are also possible The melting theory
depends on small localized areas of strain-indueed adiabatic heating. It has been shown that there
does seem to be enough temperature rise for recovery to take place near the abraded surface (Ref
7).

Effects of Material Properties on Abrasive Wear

A variety of material characteristics have been shown to either form a correlation with abrasive
wear or have some effect on it. These properties include hardness, elastic modulus, yield strength,
melting temperature, crystal structure, micro— structure. and composition.

It has been shown experimentally and theoretically that the hardness of a material correlates with
its abrasion rate. Khrushchev (Ref 8) performed a large amount of testing and found an inverse
relationship between abrasion rate and annealed hardness for pure materials (Fig. 4). He also
tested steels of varying hardness The hardnesses were inverse linearly related to abrasive wear,
except that they had a different slope from that of the pure materials.

Fig. 4 Wear resistance versus hardness for pure metals and alloys. Source: Refs

It is generally thought that the surface of a material is work hardened up to a very high level
during the process of abrasion. Richardson {Ref 9) investigated work hardening by plewing during
wear on a group of pure metals and steels. He compared the resulting hardness of the surface to
surfaces hardened by shot blasting and trepanning, and found that abrasion produced a high
hardness that was nearly the hardness of trepanning. In addition, the wear resistance of the metal
was proportional to the hardness of the wom surface.

Abrasive wear has also been found to be dependent on crystal structure and orientation. Alison
(Ref 10) showed that cubic metals wear at about twice the rate of hexagonal metals1 which was
attributed to the lower work-hardening rate of the hexagonal metals. In addition, Steijn (Ref 11)
studied the wear of single crystals. Scratching body-centered cubic (bee) and faee-eentered cubic
(fee) metals with a prepared surface on the [001) plane, he showed wider scratch width, which
implied higher wear, along the <100> than the <1 |0>direction.

Mierostructure is also important. Austenite and bainite of equal hardness are more abrasion
resistant than ferrite, pearlite, or martensite. This is because of the higher strain—hardening
capacity and ductility of austenite.

Additionally, it has been found that fracture toughnesg, Km, of the material is important in
determining abrasive wear for ceramics and, to a lesser degree, white cast irons. Fischer {Ref 12)
prepared a series of zirconia samples with constant hardness, but varying toughness. He found
that the wear decreased with the fourth power of the toughness (Fig. 5) This fourth power law
applies to a single case of material and test parameters, but it does show the important effect of
toughness on brittle materials.

Fig. 5 Wear rate of zirconium oxide as a function of fracture toughness. Source: Ref 12

Alloying is often used to improved the performance of a material. These additions can take either
interstitial or substitutiona] locations Adding carbon to iron is a good example of an interstitial
addition used to improve abrasión resistance. Tylezak (Ref 13) studied the abrasion resistance of
Zr and Ti alloys with small interstitial additions of N or 0, Like carbon in iron, these alloys also
decreases of wear with small increases ot‘interstitial content. For substitutional alloy systems, he
also showed that the abrasion of alloys with complete solid solubility, such as Hf—Zr, Cu-Ni, and
Cr—V, follows a law of mixing, where the abrasion is proportionate to the amount of each alloy.
Abrasion was also found to be somewhat affected by solidus temperature and hardness. For
solid—solution mixtures, this indicates that deviations from a law of mixing are separately
dependent on strength of the bond and distortion of the crystal lattice.

A common way to modify the properties of" a material is to produce a second phase. Treatments
that cause the formation of precipitates can result in larger increases in hardness and yield stress.
On the basis of the previously developed simple wear model, one would expect this to lead to
large decreases in abrasive wear. Unfortunately, the small coherent particles are often sheared
during plastic deformation. and the incoherent particles fail to block the dislocations that are
generated. As a result. preeipitati on treatments are not generally a useful way to decrease
abrasive wear.

Larger, hard incoherent precipitates or particles such as carbides can be useful in decreasing
abrasive wear. Figure 6 shows what happens when the size ratio of the abrasive grains to the hard
particles in the matrix is varied. When the incoherent particles are somewhat larger than the
abrasive grains ahrading the surface, they are generally effective in decreasing the total material
wear. Examinations ofworn surfaces have revealed that the abrasive grains are lifted over the
carbide grains. As the softer matrix is cut away and removed, the load is significantly transferred
to hard particles. Incoherent particle wear occurs by two slower processes: abrasion of the hard
particles and loss of hard particles by debonding between the matrix and the particles. because of
fatigue. For alloyed white cast irons, research indicates that approximately 30 yol% carbides
provides the best abrasion resistance.

Fig. 6 Effect on abrasive wear when second phase size is varied. (a) Small second phase, easily
removed. (b) Large second phase, protection of matrix. (C) Very large second phase, small abrasive
channeled to matrix

The relationship between particle size and abrasive grain size is important. Larger abrasive grains
tend to create larger wear chips. When incoherent particles are small. relative to the abrasive
grains and wear chips, they can be cut out with the matrix. adding little to the abrasion resistance
of the material. If the abrasive grains are very small, relative to the hard particles, and the gaps
between particles are large, then the grains are able to undermine the hard particles, allowing
them to fall out or be dislodged by the occasional large abrasive grain.

The particle ehataeteristies that work best for wear protection are hard, tough, and bloeky. A high
hardness value makes them harder to cut. Toughness makes them resistant to breakage. Bloeky
particles, versus those that are plate- or rod- shaped, also reduce crack propagation and breakage.

With the advent of new advanced materials, the use of reinforced composites is becoming more
common. These materials are subjected to abrasive wear in many applications. Factors that affect
the abrasive wear of these materials include the orientation, size, modulus of elasticity, relative
hardness, and brittleness of the second phase. The simplified model of Zum Gahr {Ref 14) (Fig. T)
shows the effects of varying these parameters.

Orientation

Size
Modulus of elasticity

Hardness

Brittleness

Increasing wear loss

Fig. 7 Effect of orientation, size, elastic modulus, hardness, and brittleness of second phase on
abrasive wear. Source: Ref 14

It has been found that a reinforcing second phase lying parallel to the surface is more easily
removed than one that is anchored perpendicular to the surface. Also, when the size of the second
phase is small relative to the abrasive Groove depth, the second phase has little or no beneficial
effect Because most reinforcing additions have a high modulus of elasticity, a matrix with a low
modulus will tend to debond at the interfaces and lead to pull—out and abrasive loss. In some
metals, such as alloyed white east irons, if the second phase is harder than the matrix. then the
hard phase will protect the matrix. Lastly, brittle materials tend to crack and chip to a larger area
than the cross section of the abrasive grain doing the damage. An impressive amount of current
research on wear—resistant materials is focusing on advanced composites.

Effect of Environment on Abrasive Wear

In addition to the properties of a material, the environment affects wear. As stated earlier,
abrasion loss rates are not intrinsic to a material. Environmental factors that effect abrasive loss
include, but are not limited to: the type of abrasive and its characteristics, temperature, speed of
contact, unit load of the abrasive on the material, humidity, and corrosive effects, each of which is
discussed below.

Abrasive. In the simple model of abrasive wear previously developed, differences in abrasives have
been included in the constant and mostly ignored. However, changing the abrasive will change the
wear rate. The effect of critical angle has already been discussed, but other abrasive
characteristics will also contribute. Among these are hardness, toughness, and size of the abrasive.

The hardness of the abrasive particles is important to the rate of abrasion of the subject material,
As the hardness of the abrasive exceeds that of the wear material, abrasive wear typically
becomes much worse (Ref 15, 16}, as shown in Fig. 8. As the abrasive hardness exceeds the
hardness of the material, it is able to penetrate the surface and eutfremove material without
having its cutting edges broken or rounded.
Abrasive wear —I-

Ratio of material hardness to abrasive hardness

Fig. 8 Effect of abrasive hardness, relative to material hardness, on abrasive wear

Figure 9 shows the hardness of typical minerals and alloy mieroeonstituents, According to the
above theory, hematite ore would cut pearlite, but not martensite. This also explains the great
advantage of chromium white irons, which have a hardness greater than most common minerals.

Microeenstituent Hardness Mineral

Knoop Mohs

Diamond

Vanadium carbide {VC}

Titanium carbide (TIC)

Silicon carbide (SiC)

Tungsten carbide {WC}

Chromium carbide

Cemennte

Corundum

Topaz

Quartz

Silica sand Flint. Garnet

olivene

feldespar Taconite iron pyrite

glass magnetite

leucite hematite

limenite

apatite limonite

fluorite siderite

dolomite

calcite bauxite
 biotite mica

kaolin

gypsum anthracite

bituminous coal

plastics

talc

Fig. 9 Hardness of some minerals and alloy mieroconstituents

The shape of the abrasive particle is important, because it influences the shape of the groove
produced in the material. It also influences the contact load and the transition from elastic to
plastie contact. Experiments have continued that less wear occurs when materials are abraded by
rounded, rather than sharp, particles.

The toughness of the abrasive particles is an important factor during abrasion. Material loss will
increase when the toughness of the abrasive increases. Avery [Ref 17} gives examples of wear on
several white irons and a steel when subjected to two different abrasives of the same hardness
(Fig. 10). Although ehert and silica both have the same hardness (Mohs 7), the ehert, which is the
tougher mineral, caused two to three times the wear generated by the silica.

Chert Silica Feldspar Dolomite

Tough Brittle Brittle

Hardness

Fig. 10 Effect of toughness of minerals can wear, using ABEX wet abrasion test. Source: Ref 17

Temperature. It might be expected that abrasive wear would increase as the temperature rises,
because the hardness and yield strength decrease. lnstead, for aluminum and copper [Ref 18).
when the temperature was increased from ambient to 673 K, very little change in the abrasive
wear rate was observed. It has been proposed that the reason for this small change is that during
abrasion, small areas are adiabatieally heated. At higher initial temperatures, the metal flow stress
is reduced. This results in less heating in the material during the abrasion process. The end result is
that áreas around the material that is being removed have a similar temperature, independent of
starting temperature, and similar abrasion rates.
Speed of Contact. The rate of abrasive wear has been found to slightly increase with increasing
speed in the range from 0 to 2.5 mils (O to 8.2 fits). This increase in wear may be attributable to
frictional heating. The effect is small, because all of the abrasion occurs in a near-adiabatic
process. This should result in nearly the same peak temperature rise, independent of speed, for
the tiny volume of material where the asperities are removing the material.

Load. Abrasive wear has been shown to be proportional to load, following the Areharcl equation.
However, this proportional effect breaks down when the load is high enough to fracture the
abrasive particles. If the forces do fracture the abrasive particles and create new sharp points,
wear can increase. If the abrasive particle points are rounded, wear will decrease.

Humidity. The effect of atmospheric humidity on abrasive wear is far from clear, and contrary
results exist. Larsen- Basse (Ref 19, 20) studied the effect of atmospheric humidity on abrasive
wear for a variety of pure metals and steels. When using SiC abrasive, wear usually increased with
increasing humidity, up to 65% relative humidity. This increase is attributed to a moisture-assisted
Fracture of the SiC abrasive particle, which resulted in fresh sharp edges to cut into the surface of
the material.

An additional cause for increased wear was the Rehbinder effect (Ref 21). The Rehbinder effect is
a chemo-meehanical mechanism in which chemical impurities, such as ions or atomic hydrogen,
modify the fracture properties in a crack root, leading to increased wear rates.

Mercer {Ref 22) found a much different result, where, with increasing humidity, abrasive wear
decreased for iron and mild steel, stayed constant for titanium, and increased for copper. With
contrary results such as these, the effect of humidity is still not clear.

Corrosive Effects. Abrasive wear is often enhanced by corrosive conditions, particularly a low pH. A
synergism often occurs between abrasive wear and corrosion. The abrasion creates fresh surfaces
that rapidly corrode, and the normally protective corrosion layer is removed by abrasion. Using a
laboratory abrasives slurry apparatus. Madsen (Ref 23) demonstrated that the synergism of an
abrasive and a corrosive component could be twice that of individual components added together.
In a grinding study, Tylezak (Ref 24) showed that grinding in acid waste water increased the wear
rate by about twice that of grinding in tap water.

Theory

A number of equations have been used for correlations between wear and other properties. The
Archard equation for a relationship of wear with hardness has already been introduced.
Khrushchotr (Ref 25) demonstrated the correlation with hardness and has proposed an empirical
correlation with elastic modulus of the form:

W= (ks/E1.3) (Eq 6)

where E is the elastic modulus.

For pure metals, relationships were found between wear and energy of melting, the combination
of atomic weight and Debye temperature, and the combinations of melting points divided by
atomic volume. All of these relationships measure interatomie cohesion. However, a fundamental
understanding of abrasive wear has not yet been developed from fundamental theories.

Most current theory is based on the concept that abrasion is the process of scratching.
Furthermore, most theories simplify the tip of the serateher as a sharp come. The theories then go
on the explain the effect of said come sliding across the surface of a specimen. The Archard
equation, with small modifications. is still widely used as a starting point for the development of
more complex equations. The more successfully the models deal with "real" complications, the
more useful they will be.

One example of an extended Archard mode proposed by Zum Gahr (Ref 26) has a factor that
accounts for the proportion of displaced material to removed material, He defines a factorfib as:

Where At. is the eross—seetional area of the wear groove, and A] and A3, combined, are the
eross—sectional area of thematerial displaced to the sides of the groove. For perfect cutting, this
term is l, and for pure plowing, with no material removal. the term is 0. The equation for wear. in
this case, is:

W=fab Av d (Eq 8)

Factors that will reduce fib give greater wear resistance without requiring a modification of
material hardness. In other words, a material with a greater ability to deform will plow, rather
than cut. This follows the results from Khrushchov, where the pure materials, which have a large
capacity for defomtation, had greater abrasion resistance than alloy steels of a given hardness.

Materials
Material selection tbr abrasion resistance is not an exact science. Although there seems to be a
counter example for every example, there are families of materials that have demonstrated good
resistance. They are typically hard materials that resist scratching and include ceramics, carbide
materials, alloyed white east irons, and hardened alloy steels. In addition, these and other
materials can be put, or formed, on the surface of many less—abrasion—resistant materials by
welding, plasma spraying, flame spraying, electroplating, diffusion, and other techniques.

Ceramics. Many ceramics show outstanding abrasion resistance, because of their high hardness
relative to the abrasive particle. One of their weaknesses, however, is an inability to withstand
impact, that is, they have a low Fracture toughness. At high unit loads, ceramics are also subject to
mierofi'acture, which can lead to high wear loss rates. Alumina, zirconia, and silicon nitride, among
others, are currently used for wear-resistant applications. Ceramics use will increase as their
limitations are further understood and their prices decrease.

Metals, because of their ability to withstand general abuse, will continue to be widely used in
abrasive wear applications. As a general guide to metals that will resist abrasive wear, it has been
found that:

- High hardness is the primary requirement

- Abrasion resistance tends to increase with additions of earbide-forming metals.

. Carbides are useful additions to metals when they are large in relation to the size of the abrasive.

Afloyed white cast irons are the most abrasion—resistant iron—base alloys. Their resistance to
abrasion is due to the formation of carbides during solidification. Unfortunately, they have limited
impact resistance compared to steels, are very difficult to machine, and are not weldable. which
limits their industrial applications. The families of white irons include high-chrornium, ehrome-
moly. Nickel-chrome, and pearlitic white irons. The compositions of typical white cast irons are
given at Table 1.

Table 1 Alloy composition of abrasion-resistant white cast irons

Common name Class Type ASTM designati Composition wt%

The higher-ehromium alloys are currently favored over the Ni-Cr or pearlitic white irons, because
of their improved resistance to impact in the heat-treated condition. The 25Cr alloy is particularly
suited to conditions requiring either extra oxidation or corrosion resistance, whereas the 15Cr3Mo
alloys should be used where there is need for thick cross sections, because of their higher
hardenability.

Steel's. For low-alloy steels, abrasion resistance is basically a function of hardness and carbon
content. Other additions can be made to allow for full hardening and other mechanical properties.
Toe] steels of the M and T (high-speed steel), D (high Cr), and part of the A (air hardening) series
often form carbides in the structure for additional abrasion resistance. The American Society of
Lubrication Engineers (Ref 27) has developed a chart (Fig. l I) For selecting a replacement tool steel
when greater wear resistanee, or toughness, is required. Austenitic Mn steels are among the
toughest of the available materials. The 12Mn type is known as Hadfield steel. These materials are
advantageous where the stresses of use can fully work harden surfaces to help resist further loss.

Air hardening matched set, Oil hardening matched set, Water hardening matched set, Rod hard
matched set

AISI type

Greater wear resistance, greater toughness

Greater hardness, accuracy, and safety. Greater accuracy, and safety. Red hardness.

Fig. 11 Basic diagram for matched set method of selecting tool steels. Source: Ref 27

Plastics. It has been observed that plastics have lower wear resistance as the ratio of hardness to
elastic modulus decreases (Ref 28). Other work has shown that abrasion resistance increases in
both thermoplastics and thermosets, for higher molecular weights of the plastics. These materials
are being used for slurry handling because they are able to withstand the abrasion of the small
particles of the slurry and are resistant to chemical attack.