Accelerated wear testing for evaluating the life characteristics of copper–graphite tribological composite

Sliding wear is a key determinant of the performance of electrical sliding contacts used in electrical machines. The behavior of the contact in sliding couple is controlled by the mutual metal transfer, friction and wear. Product life and reliability of sliding contacts are dictated by wear phenomenon. The present paper focuses on evaluation of tribological performance of copper–graphite composites using reliability theory. These composites are made up of a high electrical and thermal conductivity matrix with a solid lubricant reinforcement, making it most suitable for sliding contacts. Traditional life tests under normal operating condition would be a time consuming process due to a very long expected life of the composite. Hence, accelerated wear testing was carried out for evaluating the life characteristics. Analysis was then performed on the times-to-failure data and reliability models were developed. Life-stress relationship based on the inverse power law-Weibull model was used to make reliability predictions at normal usage level.