Archard wear and component geometry

The wear performance of tribological material pairs is commonly assessed by experimental investigations which make use of rigs incorporating a pin-on- disc geometry. The information so generated is conventionally interpreted i n terms of a linear relation between wear volume, applied load and sliding distance in accord with the Archard wear equation. An appropriate material parameter is thus the so-called dimensional wear rate usually measured in m m(3)/N m. However, there are many practical situations in which, as compone nts wear, the area of apparent contact changes so that, although the Archar d relation may still be applicable on the microscale, the relation between either the macroscopic wear dimension, or the total wear volume, may be oth er than a linear function of sliding distance or load. The following exampl es are considered: a spherically ended pin sliding or rotating against a fl at, a pair of crossed cylinders, a radially loaded journal bearing and a ra dially loaded spherical bearing. Data from the wear literature are examined in the light of the analyses presented.