Temperature effects on adhesive wear in dry sliding contacts

In many metal forming operations, frictional heating occurs at the interface due to a sliding contact. Generally, the controlling wear mechanism in the tribological system is attributed to adhesive wear. Understanding of the influence of temperature on wear mechanisms is needed for the development of materials and for optimization of the forming process. Dry sliding tests were conducted at different sliding velocities and, hence, different surface temperatures due to frictional heating. A significant influence of temperature on adhesion was observed and increasing temperature led to a higher tendency for initiation of severe adhesive wear. The results were compared to atomic force microscopy force curve measurements, which show that the adhesive force increases with temperature. A very good agreement between the results was observed, which suggests that the controlling mechanism for the observations in the present work is temperature-induced high adhesion.