Vibration monitoring in sliding wear of plasma sprayed ceramics

Dry frictional contact between two surfaces, one made of plasma sprayed ceramic coatings of Al2O3 and Al2O3-TiO2 combination and the other made of steel, is analyzed. The experiments were conducted using a pin-on-disc set-up in the load range of 5-35 N and for sliding distances up to 14 km. The interactions between friction, wear and vibrations due to influence of normal load, sliding speed and system dynamics are investigated in the present paper. Two vibration parameters of pin in the load direction (vertical) are monitored, namely the r.m.s. acceleration and the kurtosis, which seem to be influenced considerably by the wear process and indicate correlation with wear mechanisms taking place such as stick-slip and grain pull-out, as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy of worn surfaces. The study shows that a range of frequency is to be utilized for vibration monitoring to include natural frequencies of the system consisting of pin in contact with disc. This could be estimated by a standard impulse hammer test. The pin acceleration decreases with increase in load and sliding distance, but with respect to sliding speed, the vibration level initially decreases but increases beyond the sliding speed of 1.5 m s-1. Among the three ceramic coatings, TiO2 is found to be most wear resistant, exhibiting the lowest friction coefficient and a low vibration level. Variation in kurtosis with run-in wear indicates smoothing of Al2O3 due to grain pull out. © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.