The correlation between thermal property variation and high temperature wear transition of rubbing metals

This paper reports the findings of a preliminary investigation of the correlation between the thermal properties of a rubbing material and its wear behavior at elevated temperatures, It is conjectured that, the potential of a material to accommodate a sudden change in its thermal state upon contact is an important factor that influences wear resistance of the material. Accordingly, metals which intrinsically maintain a smooth transition between two thermal states are more likely to display a favorable wear behavior at higher temperatures. Thus for such metals, the nature of transition is conducive to protective layer formation. The results indicate that for all alloys, an equilibrium between the conductive and the diffusive effects is maintained throughout the temperature intervals for which a favorable wear behavior was experimentally reported. Moreover, the bounds of such intervals mark the respective reported wear regime transition temperatures. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.