Wear Mechanisms Analysis and Friction Behavior of Anodic Aluminum Oxide Film 5083 under Cyclic Loading

In this paper, the durability, the wear resistance, the tribological behavior, and the wear particles flow of the Anodic Aluminum Oxide Film 5083 were studied under cyclic loading. Different anodizing durations (reaction times (RT)) and applied currents (J) were tested. Besides, a tribological model with a correlation between the friction coefficient and the wear mechanisms of the oxide layer was established. Postmortem analyses were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive x-rays (EDX), and profilometry analyses. Experimental results were shown that the increase in the RT improves the durability of the 5083-aluminum alloy oxide layer. Moreover, when RT increased, the stability of friction coefficient was improved, and the surfaced pores were more filled with micro-sized wear particles, inducing the establishment of a compacted layer. Consequently, the 5083-aluminum alloy oxide layer was shown important tribological characteristics such as the durability and wear resistance after hundreds of rubbing cycles. It was concluded that three stages characterized the friction behavior and the wear particle flow under cycling: firstly, a friction coefficient stable stage with the establishment of an internal flow that feeds the contact (internal source flow); the second stage is the progressive increase in the friction coefficient, while the wear particles were crushed and compacted to form a smooth layer, constituting the continuous internal flow; and the third stage is the return of the stable state of the friction coefficient, where the smooth layers spread, and the pores filled with the powder.