The relationship between wear and dissipated energy in sliding systems

Wear is the progressive loss of material from the operating surface of a body occurring as a result of relative motion at the surface, while friction is the main means of controlling the input of energy in a system. The tribosystem approach proposes analysing the contact on both the material and the energetic planes, but the relationships between the different planes are not well established. In this paper, the basis of the energetic approach is discussed and the application of the model to experimental studies on bulk materials reveals a promising and powerful tool to analyse experimental results and to use in the mechanical design.