The Digital Simulation Of Sliding Wear Testing Based On Finite Element Method

With the rapid development of computer simulation technology, especially the latest progress of CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) simulation techniques, the requirement of studying accurately tribological properties and reliability of machinery is higher and higher. Therefore, the tribology simulation has received considerable attention and many researchers have already focused on it. The traditional friction and wear testing methods have the ability to gain good results on analyzing engineering materials. However, it is complex and time assuming to use traditional testing methods. Furthermore, the experimental results of one tribo-system aren't suitable for another tribo-system. Nowadays, the burdensome experimental work can be replaced partly or fully by tribology simulation with the support of computer simulation technology. Through setting up the appropriate simulation wear model, the parameters of model may be simulated exactly. Accordingly, the wear condition of wear components can be predicted in advance. Moreover, it is available to realize selecting appropriate materials, matching optimal materials, optimizing design of rubbing pairs and extending the life of wear components using tribology simulation.In this paper, numerical calculation and finite element method are adopted to conduct a comparison analysis of contact characteristics of pin-on-disc rubbing pairs and the contact characteristics of pin-on-disc rubbing pairs are simulated using ANSYS finite element analysis software. Establishing the physical model, calculation model and wear simulation model of pin-on-disc of the asperity on the wear surface, these models are deduced based on the certain assumptive conditions, the geometrical characteristic of the asperity. Although the wear simulation model is established according to pin-on-disc wear mode, it is general-available for most wear modes including reciprocating wear mode. The simulation of contact properties (contact stress and contact deformation ) of the asperities is realized using ANSYS. Further, the wear simulation model is validated by the results of pin-on-disc testing.The analysis results of Pin-on-Disc sliding wear tests have shown that there is an exponential relationship under the dry friction condition but a power exponential relationship under the boundary lubricated friction condition between the wear volume and the load as well as the wear volume and the rotating speed.Combined with the analysis results of ANSYS, tribological simulation software based on Pin-on-Disc sliding wear is developed using Visual Basic. This software is composed of three modules, that is, stress simulation, wear simulation and database. Stress simulation has the function of calculating any required stress values of contact area drawing the graph of stress distributing trend under the contact surface, and simulating the distributing condition of contact stress of Pin-on-Disc using the style of nephogram. The module of wear simulation has the function to simulate the wear process of pin on disc and calculate the wear volume of the pin component at each time interval under different conditions. Moreover, it can simulate the rotation of the pin component by inputting the value of rotating speed. Similar to the function of commercial database, the module of database has not only the functions of adding, searching, modifying and deleting records, but also the functions of storing the wear images of the surfaces of pin/disc rubbing pairs according to the test conditions. It is believed that this simulation software provides a new wear analysis tool fortribologists and engineers.