The relationship between acoustic emissions and wear particles for repeated dry rubbing

Acoustic emission (AE) is the emission of elastic stress waves resulting from the deformation and fracture of materials. The application of AE measurement techniques permits in-process monitoring of tribological characteristics. For practical applications, it is necessary to determine the relationship between AE signals and tribological phenomena, so we measured AE signals generated by tribological actions for repeated dry rubbings. The experimental results indicate that the features of AE parameters differ depending on the type of wear particles that are produced. The amplitude variation in the AE count rate is proportional to the surface damage at a friction interface. There is a good correlation between the AE cumulative count and the number of wear particles. In addition, there may be a negative correlation between the AE mean value and the elastic energy stored in wear particles between sliding surfaces. The generation and actions of wear particles between sliding surfaces has a marked effect on AE signals detected under repeated dry rubbing.