Modelling sliding wear: From dry to wet environments

Corrosive species in various forms exist widely in the environment and can significantly affect wear behaviour of materials, usually accelerating wear. Under conditions where the environments are seemingly non-deleterious in terms of corrosivity, some species from the environment can still affect the tribological behaviour of materials. It is thus extremely important to recognise the roles of reactive species in affecting the tribological processes and to understand the processes of tribo-corrosion interactions. In this paper, the mechanisms of wear debris generation and the roles of reactive species in the generation of wear debris during sliding wear in gaseous or aqueous environments are discussed. The effect of environment on the development of wear-protective layers is described. Based on the proposed mechanisms, mathematical models for sliding wear in both dry and aqueous environments are outlined, and the validity of the models is assessed against experimental data in sliding conditions.