FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF WEAR PROCESS OF A PEEK-STEEL SLIDING PAIR AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURE

Abstract

The operational conditions for polymer-steel sliding pairs frequently produce higher temperature because of the frictional heat generation and/or some environmental sources. To study the wear behaviour an incremental wear simulation technique have been developed, which can consider the temperature- and time-dependent behaviour of polymer materials and evaluate the contact behaviour during the wear process by changing the initial clearance between the pin and disc according to the linear wear equation. The wear simulation technique proposed is applied for a Pin-on-Disk configuration considering creep behaviour of a PEEK material, the frictional heat generation and the thermal expansion. The results illustrate the initial part of the wear process, which involves the edge-like contact and the full contact phases.