Fretting wear behaviors of steel wires under friction-increasing grease conditions

Fretting wear tests were performed on the self-made fretting wear rig to investigate fretting wear behaviors of steel wires under friction-increasing grease conditions. The results demonstrated that the fretting regimes were dependent on displacement amplitudes and normal loads. The friction coefficient exhibited different variation trends in different fretting regimes. Friction-increasing grease changed the fretting running behavior and had a very good wear resistance for steel wires. Wear was slight in partial slip regime. Mixed regime was characterized by plastic deformation, fatigue cracks and abrasive wear. Slip regime presented main damage mechanisms of abrasive wear, fatigue wear and oxidation.

Research highlights
► Although the use of friction-increasing grease is expected to achieve major reductions in fretting, its influence on fretting behaviors of steel wires is still unclear.
► In addition, little literature on the fretting behaviors of steel wires inside the hoisting rope under friction-increasing grease conditions has been reported until now.
► This paper has investigated systematically the effect of parameters such as displacement amplitudes and contact loads on fretting wear behaviors of steel wires, and has established running condition fretting maps to describe various fretting regimes.
► The fretting wear tests of steel wires under the friction-increasing grease and dry friction conditions are performed to understand the influence of friction-increasing grease on the fretting damage behaviors of steel wires and offer some experimental data for further study.