Application of the ring-on-ring test for abrasive wear modeling of rolling undercarriage components in track-type machines

This study demonstrates the application of the ring-on-ring test to investigate some of the important factors affecting the abrasive wear of rolling undercarriage components in track-type machines. The test involves the rolling contact between two steel rings and the systematic delivery of sand-sized third-body particles into the contact interface to induce abrasive wear. The wear factors addressed in this paper include: the number of cycles, contact load, mineralogical and grain-size composition of abrasive particles, mating combination of steels with different physical properties and moisture (wet versus dry) condition. A contact model is proposed to explain the wear relationships derived by this study. The model involves primary stages of load accommodation at the rolling contact interface. These include the penetration of pristine abrasive particles into the steel (stage 1), fragmentation or crushing of the particles (stage 2), and indentation of hard crushed particles into the steel (stage 3).