ABRASIVE CONCENTRATION EFFECTS ON WEAR UNDER RECIPROCATING CONDITIONS

Experiments were conducted to investigate wear under abrasive conditions present at the piston ring-cylinder liner interface in coal-fueled diesel engines. A reciprocating apparatus was designed and fabricated to study the effects on wear of ash content in coal and of abrasive concentration in oil. The wear rate was found to be a linear function of ash concentration regardless of whether the coal had been combusted or not. A linear dependence of wear rate on abrasive concentration in oil was also observed for both coal and pure silica. These effects have important implications on wear mitigation and research methodologies for coal-fueled engines.