Computational simulations of delamination wear in a coating system

Delamination wear constitutes one relevant wear process in many materials. In particular, wear failure through delamination is relevant for material systems where a coating is present on a substrate material. A computational modeling approach is presented that aims to describe the processes of formation and growth of wear delaminations. The model is based on the cohesive zone model approach. An irreversible cohesive zone model is used in a parametric numerical study of delamination wear in a coating system. The model predicts trends in agreement with the trends emerging from Archard's law. The proposed modeling approach has the advantage that details of the delamination wear process can numerically be studied, and that a unified framework from delamination initiation and propagation is provided.