Simulating sliding wear with finite element method

Wear of components is often a critical factor influencing the product service life. Wear prediction is therefore an important part of engineering. The wear simulation approach with commercial finite element (FE) software ANSYS is presented in this paper. A modelling and simulation procedure is proposed and used with the linear wear law and the Euler integration scheme. Good care, however, must be taken to assure model validity and numerical solution convergence. A spherical pin-on-disc unlubricated steel contact was analysed both experimentally and with FEM, and the Lim and Ashby wear map was used to identify the wear mechanism. It was shown that the FEA wear simulation results of a given geometry and loading can be treated on the basis of wear coefficient-sliding distance change equivalence. The finite element software ANSYS is well suited for the solving of contact problems as well as the wear simulation. The actual scatter of the wear coefficient being within the limits of +/-40-60% led to considerable deviation of wear simulation results. These results must therefore be evaluated on a relative scale to compare different design options. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.