Wear mecahnisms and wear rate in a high temperature dry friction of AISI H11 tool steel: Influence of debris circulation

The wear rate of sliding materials seems impossible to predict. It is clearly a function of substrate material, but we are learning that many surface events are also important. In particular, studies on the last 20 years have shown that substances develop between two sliding bodies have a strong influence on both friction and wear. These substances had become known as “third bodies”. Whereas third bodies have been proven to be important, they have not been completely characterized. The third bodies have been studied, but it appears that the geometries of the sliding pairs are also important.This paper describes some experiments in which the composition of third-body materials are controlled by temperatures and in which the durability of third-body films are influenced by the geometry of contact between sliding bodies.