Wear equation for adhesive wear established through elementary process of wear

The research covers the wear processes of adhesive wear from the origin of wear elements (the unitary debris of wear) with a size from a few nanometers to a few tens of nanometers to form transfer particles and lastly wear particles. These particles and wear phenomenon were observed by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Furthermore, the formation process of wear particles between the sliding surfaces was optically observed by means of an in situ observation system. From the results of observation of the wear process, we propose a basic wear model of the adhesive wear mechanism and present a wear equation for adhesive wear including physical properties of the sliding surfaces as well as the chemical effect of surrounding gas molecules to the surfaces. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.