WEAR MODELING - USING FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OR PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

Section 1 defines what is meant by "wear modelling for design". Section 2 identifies the three partners (mechanisms, first and third bodies) or triplet that must be considered in any wear modelling attempt and insists on the diversity of conditions encountered in different mechanisms. Section 3 goes through the steps which must be followed to create a wear particle. It shows that some of these steps have been modelled individually but not collectively. Section 4 defines what is meant by velocity accommodation mechanisms and identifies 20 such mechanisms. Section 5 analyzes the relation between velocity accommodation mechanisms, third-body flow and wear. Section 6 discusses what is needed to model wear from first principles and concludes that the information is not available or even not sought after. Section 7 presents practical ways of obtaining empirical wear laws.