High resolution imaging of macroscopic wear scars in the initial stage

Three main phenomena taking place at the very initial stage of wear could be identified: the abrasion of small asperities bulging out of the sample surface, the carving of swallow grooves with depth under 20 nm, and the partial or total closure of cavities present on the surface. This last phenomenon shows that, before the carving of a wear scar, the plastic deformation of particular regions of the sample, i.e. the volume around the cavities, takes place already after few cycles (in this case between 400 and 800) in the initial phase of the sliding test.