On the Use of Alternative Measurement Methods in the Estimation of Wear Rates in Rotary-Pin-on-Disk Tribometry

Do two different and independent methods of estimating the wear rate of a test sample yield the same numerical result? Numerical values of specific wear rates estimated on the basis of alternative methods using a set of dry sliding rotary-pin-on-disk experiments are presented. Wear rates of brass and aluminium alloy pins were estimated using gravimetric and wear scar area methods. Gravimetric and linear displacement methods were used to assess wear rates of ABS plastic and machinable wax pins. Scepticism about the estimated nominal values of wear rates is reduced when alternative assessment methods result in comparable numerical values, or values having the same order of magnitude. This is particularly useful when ranking competing materials for wear rates, when the differences in these rates are small. Uncertainties in individual test sample wear rates, and dispersion in the nominal values of wear rates are also computed to support the aforementioned observations.