TOPOLOGY OF WEAR PARTICLES

This paper describes the evolution of elastomer/rubber wear debris morphology from the in situ leading to trailing edges of sliding contacted wear surfaces. Special attention is given to establishing the role of grit size, slip rate, and contact length on the formation of wear particles, as well as the subsequent in situ aggregation of such product into a hierarchy of paniculate material. Of specific interest is the determination of the in situ mass/number count partitioning between true wear particles and aggregates. This population balance is achieved by establishing and monitoring the morphological signature of the various particle types as one moves along various in situ positions to the wake location. The validity/reliability of the empirical trends obtained are verified through the use of the appropriate statistical measures.