Variations in wear loss with respect to load and sliding speed under dry sand/rubber-wheel abrasion condition: a modeling study

The dry sand/rubber-wheel abrasion tester is widely used to evaluate the lo w-stress abrasion resistance of materials for the mining/mineral processing industry particularly for the oil sand mining industry. Since wear loss is usually proportional to the applied load, this test is often performed und er a fixed load at a fixed sliding speed to rank materials. However, inaccu rate or misleading information might be generated under an inadequate load. It has been observed that D2 tool steel exhibits very different responses to variations in the applied load. Above a certain load level, further incr ease in the applied load may lead to a decrease in wear loss of D2 steel. I n order to understand this phenomenon, computer simulation was performed to investigate wear responses of several engineering materials, including D2 tool steel, stainless steel, Al 6061 and Cu 110, to variations in applied l oad under the dry sand/rubber-wheel abrasion condition. It was demonstrated that the decrease in wear loss of D2 tool steel with an increase in the ap plied load was attributed to failure of the abrasive sand. Wear losses of t he materials with respect to the sliding speed were also investigated. The prediction from the simulation was compared to experimental observations. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.