Friction and wear of self-mated SiC and Si3N4 in green water-based lubricant

Hydrostatic/hybrid bearings have been used in many engineering applications. In order to address the disadvantages of lubricating oil such as pollution and resource consumption, researchers are trying to use water to replace oil in these bearings. To eliminate the corrosivity of water and increase its viscosity, additives were added in water and this new lubricant is called “green water-based lubricant”. Ceramics are considered to be very suitable tribo-pair materials in water. In order to select the best material in the green water-based lubricant and explore the effect of the additives, this paper carried out friction and wear experiments of self-mated SiC and self-mated Si3N4 in this new lubricant on a ring-toring tribometer. The results show that self-mated SiC possesses better running-in property, higher load-carrying capacity, lower friction coefficient, lower wear rate and smoother surface topography. The results show that the self-mated SiC and green water-based lubricant is a promising combination to replace the metal/oil system in hydrostatic/hybrid bearings.