Evolution of regimes of wear in zircaloy-4/inconel-600 contact subjected to fretting loading

Fretting wear evolution of partially compatible materials, Inconel-600 pin and Zircaloy-4 plate, is demonstrated. At the initial stage, adhesive junctions between asperities exhibit fully-stick regime. Low-cycle fatigue failure causes detachment of small particles from Zircaloy-4. These particles transfer to pin surface and exhibit mixed stick-slip regime. Further, shear failures of the pin forms wear particles which are consisting of Inconel and transferred Zircaloy. This process keeps on repeating till the time slip zone covers the whole contact i.e. transition to gross-slip regime occurs. Oxidation on the surface suppresses further adhesion, which decreases friction and wear rate in gross-slip regime.