Physical model of adhesive wear in early stage of sliding

•A simple physical model of adhesive wear was proposed.•Very early stage of adhesive wear was successfully simulated to some extent.•Transition from early steady period to material accumulation process was simulated.•The critical size of an adhesive substance at transfer event was explained.

A physical model of adhesive wear mechanism needs to be improved from quantitative aspect as possible to predict phenomena in the real world. The model should also be able to provide necessary information for the design of tribo-mechanics in logical manner. In this research, an attempt on explaining how saw teeth shape in the chart of specimen displacement perpendicular to the sliding surface for tribo-testing of adhesive wear using a quantitative simulation method had been made. Some simple processes i.e. sliding, accumulation of material and transfer of the accumulated material, which appear in the very early stage of sliding, are subjects of simulation in this research. A simple model which consisted of limited number of parameters could achieve success to simulate experimental data to some extent and mimicked the selected simple processes. The research clarified the limitation of the proposed model. Necessary additional parameters should be shape and size of a transfer unit and shear strength at interface of sliding with theoretical background. It is necessary to define those parameters theoretically based on scientific knowledge to comprehend the sliding phenomena.