A study of airborne wear particles generated from a sliding contact

Recently, much attention has been paid to the influence of airborne particles in the atmosphere on human health. Sliding contacts are a significant source of airborne particles in urban environments. In this study airborne particles generated from a sliding steel-on-steel combination are studied using a pin-on-disk tribometer equipped with airborne-particle counting instrumentation. The instrumentation measured particles in size intervals from 0.01 [micro]m to 32 [micro]m. The result shows three particle size regimes with distinct number peaks: ultrafine particles with a size distribution peak around 0.08 [micro]m, fine particles with a peak around 0.35 [micro]m, and coarse particles with a peak around 2 or 4 [micro]m. Both the particle generation rate and the wear rate increase with increasing sliding velocity and contact pressure. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3176990] Keywords: wear, airborne particles, sliding