Studies on fretting wear: influence of rubbing surface materials and some considerations

When a small tangential relative displacement is repeatedly made between surfaces to which a quasi-static normal force is applied, fretting fatigue or fretting wear are induced. There are many factors influencing these fretting phenomena. In this study, fretting wear is observed experimentally for various surface material combinations, and fretting wear volume is estimated through a newly proposed method. The influence of surface materials on fretting wear is made clear by estimating the fretting wear size, fretting wear volume and cross-sectional area configuration of the wear scar. Four plate specimen materials are used in the experiment. They are a carbon steel for machine structural use, aluminum alloy, cemented carbide and Sialon ceramics.