A granular dynamic model for the degradation of material

The work presented here is a model of the degradation of a material (by particle detachment), based on a two dimensional granular dynamic model designed to study the flows of third body particles inside a contact. As the detached particles (third body) cannot exit the contact, the detachments stop after a certain time and a stable layer of third body can be seen. It is shown that the thickness of this stable layer depends both on the conditions applied (normal pressure and sliding speed) and the physicochemical interactions between the detached particles. Such investigations provide better understanding of the mechanism leading to the degradation of material.