Abstract
The prevention of adhesion of aluminum alloy to tungsten carbide has been investigated fro the standpoint of wettability effect of fluids having simple molecular structure. Sliding experiments were conducted using aluminum alloy disks and tungsten carbide balls with supplying the fluids to the contact region. The fluids with hydroxyl functional group (-OH) and with only alkanes (saturated hydrocarbons) were tested. Contact angles of the fluids on the aluminum alloy were measured to estimate the wettability of the fluids. Experimental results showed that the lower the contact angles of the fluids, the higher the wettability of the fluids on the aluminum alloy disk, and these provided the lowered friction coefficients and no adhesion. Adhesions occurred for the fluids with low wettability. No effect of the existences of hydroxyl functional group and longer hydrocarbon chain was found on the wetting, adhesion, and friction phenomena.
