Fretting wear of a nitrided 316L/304L contact subject to in-phase normal force fluctuation in dry and lithium-boron solution: An RP-friction energy wear approach

For a dry interface the η exponent was found to be very small (0.15) suggesting that the wear volume is directly related to the friction energy dissipated in the interface. In contrast, in lithium-boron solution the best fitting was achieved with ηw=−0.9 which implies an energy wear rate nearly inversely proportional to RP. The larger the normal force fluctuation (i.e., the smaller RP) the larger the contribution of tribocorrosion and the faster the surface wear. Besides, unexpected erosion-corrosion wear phenomena were identified at the inlets of the contact. These different wear mechanisms are discussed and quantified.