THE ROLE OF FRACTURE-MECHANICS PARAMETERS IN GLASS-CERAMIC WEAR

The inter-relation between fracture mechanics and wear still needs to be highlighted. Understanding the mechanics and mechanism of both wear and Fracture in brittle materials is critical to the prevention of catastrophic failure and development of new materials that are strong and tough. Among brittle materials, engineering ceramics and glasses are receiving considerable attention. In this paper, the wear rates of soda-lime glass have been measured, sliding against silicon carbide ceramic counterface at different average surface roughnesses (R(a)). The variations of wear rates with R(a) were described and the trends were interpreted in terms of the way in which this process is influenced by fracture mechanics. A theoretical model is developed to predict the crack growth exponent ''n'' from the wear results. There is good agreement between the experimental results and those obtained from the theoretical model.