Abrasive wear in intermediate mode of multiphase materials

This article introduces the concept and a model of wear in intermediate (I) mode. Intermediate mode wear proceeds between two wear modes which correspond to upper and lower limits for the wear resistance which can be expected for a multiphase material. These extreme modes have been labelled equal wear (EW) and equal pressure (EP), respectively. The intermediate mode model is based on Archard's equation and a weighted average of the pressure distributions for the two extreme modes. The pressure distribution over the phases decides which wear mode will dominate. The predictions of the intermediate mode model are compared with experimental results for three different types of multiphase materials. It is found that the experimental results can be described and interpreted in terms of this model.