Wear of Steel Rollers under Rolling-Sliding Contact

Abstract

Wear of steel rollers has been investigated under unlubricated rolling contact with a small amount of sliding. A four-roller machine is used for the experiment; the velocity difference between the mating rollers is kept constant, while the slip ratio and the normal load are varied. A common feature is found in the wear characteristics when either the slip ratio or the load is varied. No appreciable wear takes place up to a certain critical value of each of the above parameters, and once this value is exceeded, wear begins to increase with the increase of the parameter. These wear characteristics are analyzed based on a microslip model, which was introduced for the interpretation of the frictional characteristics under such a rolling-sliding contact, by Soda and Watanabe. The extent of microslip region is determined and the macroscopic sliding wear law is applied there. The experimental and analytical results show a satisfactory agreement. It is concluded that the mechanism of the wear under rolling-sliding contact can be regarded as a usual sliding wear in the microslip region which appears in the contact area exceeding some critical running conditions.