1994 Volume 43 Issue 495 Pages 1597-1603
Fretting fatigue tests of HIP-sintered silicon nitride were carried out to discuss the dominant mechanical factors influencing fretting fatigue behavior. The fretting fatigue strength of silicon nitride was not necessarily decreased with increasing the contact load (contact pressure), which is in contrast with the case of metallic materials. This contrary behavior of ceramics results from that the relative slip amplitude between specimen and contact pad increases with decreasing contact load. Furthermore, even under a constant relative slip amplitude, the ratio of the relative slip amplitude to the contact radius varied with contact load, which has an influence on fretting wear behavior and consequently on fretting fatigue behavior. These results suggest that the fretting fatigue strength of silicon nitride is affected not only by frictional force but also by the condition of partial slip in the contact region, that is fretting wear behavior.
