Study of wear mechanisms at high temperature scratch testing

The three materials show very diverging wear behaviour at the investigated temperatures. While at low temperatures the wear scars are relatively smooth, wear behaviour became instable with temperature induced material softening. Especially inhomogeneous materials show pronounced stick-slip phenomena at highest testing temperatures. To understand the wear behaviour in a greater detail, numerical simulations of the scratch process were undertaken using smooth particle hydrodynamics. First results show a good correlation with wear scars of the austenite and allow a deep insight in the stress distribution and deformation process during scratching.