Advancements in Polymer Friction and Wear: A Scratch-Modeling Approach

AbstractDue to its many applications, including assessing strength, fracture toughness, etc., the scratch method has attracted much attention in the research community. Finding the tribological characteristics of polymers, such as friction and wear, proved difficult for scratch approaches. This study tested constant loading scratch with Rockwell indenter on the polymeric surface to develop an accessible wear and friction calculation model. Scratch load, speed, and passes, three primary factors are considered to observe the polymers' response, particularly in terms of width, penetration depth, residual depth, and percentage of recovery. Considering all these scratch parameters, the experiments are conducted on five polymers: poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene (PTFE), poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK), polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA). The scratch characteristics are considered to calculate the friction coefficient and wear throughout the scratching process. Increased groove width, penetration depth, residual depth, and a decrease in recovery percentage are the effects of number of scratch passes. The strain hardening caused by the multiple movements of the indenter on the same grooves causes a behavior change. With an increase in the scratch pass, the coefficient of friction falls and stabilizes, and the volumetric wear increases, suggesting that more scratch passes will cause more material loss. This study derived two distinct models by applying the least square curve fitting technique to evaluate friction and material wear characteristics. This model demonstrates a high degree of compatibility with the specific characteristics of polymeric materials and exhibits a significantly low margin of error.Keywords: ScratchPolymerWearFrictionDisclaimerAs a service to authors and researchers we are providing this version of an accepted manuscript (AM). Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proofs will be undertaken on this manuscript before final publication of the Version of Record (VoR). During production and pre-press, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal relate to these versions also.