CHARACTERIZATION OF WEAR BEHAVIOR OF STEEL AND CERAMICS IN THE VAMAS ROUND-ROBIN TESTS

The first and the second wear round robin tests within the framework o f the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS) h ave been performed with materials combinations of alpha-Al2O3, Si3N4 a nd AISI 52100 steel under given sliding conditions of the ball-on-disk test system. The results, as reported elsewhere, showed a characteris tic wear behavior depending on the material pairing. To obtain a deepe r understanding of the wear behaviors of these materials, some additio nal observations and analyses of the worn surfaces were conducted by m eans of various observations and analytical tools, such as topographic scanning electron microscopy, micro-Fourier transform IR and so on. I t was shown that the wear of the steel and Si3N4 was not a simple proc ess, but had a complex manner in that both tribo-oxidation action and abrasive action of the steel and Si3N4 wear particles contributed to t he higher wear of these materials.