Apparatus Development And Experimental Studies Of Fretting Wear

Fretting occurs on the contact surface between two components which are placed in a small amplitude vibration circumstance. Fretting wear is one of the most important phenomena for inducing a dramatic reduction of fatigue strength. The damage induced by fretting is very common in industry and possible catastrophic consequence occurs. Therefore, studies on fretting wear not only have science significance of exploring the unknown, but also show a broad prospect of engineering application in many fields, which have important guidance to palliate fretting damages in industry.The tribological concepts of fretting and fretting damage instances in a lot of engineering fields were overviewed. And basic theory of tangential fretting wear mode was summed up. In this paper principle of work and characteristics about existing fretting wear apparatus were briefly introduced too.For avoiding the shortcomings of extant fretting wear apparatus,the apparatus was designed and analyzed on the platform of Pro/ENGINEER, UG and ANSYS, on the basis of basic theory of fretting research. Using modern technologies, including advanced drive technology, computer technology and intelligent control technology, a new tangential fretting apparatus with piezoelectric ceramic driver was developed. The effects of amplitude of slip, normal load, frequency and prestress on friction coefficient were analyzed on the basis of some tests which were done on this apparatus. The rubbed surfaces under different experimental condition were investigated using optical microcopy, and then the running and damage mechanisms of tangential fretting have been studied.The results indicate that this tangential fretting apparatus runs steadily, with convenient operation, high precision and good expansibility.