On the Effect of Glassy Coatings on the Wear of a Sliding Contact via Multiphysics Modeling

Abstract

A recently developed multiphysics computational framework is exercised to predict the wear behavior of two deformable and heat conducting bodies under conditions of sliding contact. This framework enables the solution of a high dimensional thermo-mechanical problem simultaneously and tightly coupled with the associated wear evolution models for each of the wear pair bodies, thus enabling predictions of wear for both of them. Two distinct slider-base pairs are modeled. The first involves an aluminum alloy slider and a copper alloy base. The second is a pair identical to the first except it contains a thin strip of soda lime glass embedded in the surface of the base. The objective of this effort is to establish the effects of this glass layer on the wear of all participating bodies in comparison to the pair that does not contain this layer. The results indicate that while the glass layer has a wear mitigation effect for the stationary base it slightly increases the wear of the slider when compared with the respective bodies when the glass is not present.