Influence of the wear partition factor on wear evolution modelling of sliding surfaces

Abstract Wear of engineering components is crucial to assess their performance during all their service life. Numerical wear models are a promising tool, cheaper and quicker than experimental tests, both to investigate wear effects and to compare design solutions. However, frequently, numerical models assume that only one body gets worn or both elements undergo the same volume loss. This study proposes a generalization of the Archard wear law, introducing the concept of wear partition factor α to take into account different wear behaviours of the rubbing elements of a coupling. The proposed approach is applied to the case of a cylinder sliding over a plane with different stroke amplitudes st. A numerical wear model has been developed in Abaqus®, exploiting the UMESHMOTION routine. Implementation procedures are described and discussed along with the model convergence. Twenty combinations of α and st were simulated covering the cases both of unilateral/bilateral wear and fretting/sliding wear. Results provide important indications on the evolution of wear volumes, wear profiles and contact variables with travelled distance, revealing the remarkable role of α. The present study aims to improve both understanding and modelling of sliding wear evolution thus clarifying some critical issues slightly discussed by the literature.