On the transition from mild to severe wear of lubricated, concentrated contacts: The IRG (OECD) transition diagram

In this paper the transition from mild wear to severe wear of lubricated, concentrated contacts is dealt with. It is suggested that this transition is thermally induced. The transition from a mild wear to severe adhesive wear occurs when more then 10% of the surface transcends a predefined, critical temperature. A method for determining this critical temperature is presented. Using a BIM based numerical model including the local implementation of Archard's wear law, for the contact pressure and temperature the transition diagram for a model system is calculated and validated by experiments. The transition predicted by numerical calculations is in very good agreement with the experimental determined transition. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.