Friction vsTime

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Abstract:
Tests to simulate the wear between sliding components in
a steam power plant have been performed. A low frequency
constant load wear apparatus, housed inside a furnace was
modied to incorporate a steam environment.
The materials tested were pre-exposed in a owing steam
furnace at temperature for either 500 or 3000 hours to
provide some simulation of long term ageing. Tests were also
performed on as-received material for comparison purposes.
The duration of each wear test was 50 hours.
Apparatus
A schematic diagram of the wear test apparatus is shown
below. It has the following features:
A split furnace
Two arms which hold the samples
The top arm moves relative to the xed bottom arm
An LVDT measures the distance travelled
Another LVDT measures the wear of the specimen
Two load cells measure the normal and frictional forces
The two arms are water-cooled
The temperature of the furnace and the specimens are
measured in-situ by sheathed thermocouples
The top and bottom arms have been designed to rotate so
that the two contacting surfaces can be made parallel
Specimens
The samples were designed
to push t into the arms.
The top sample is a block
with a protruding stub
which is rubbed against a
at bottom sample.
Materials
The materials tested are listed in the table below:
Software
Software was written to control
the experiment (cycle speed,
water top-up, start and end
times) as well as to acquire
the measurement data (load,
friction, wear, temperature,
time, etc.) A typical screen shot
showing during a test is shown to the right.
Friction
During testing, the horizontal and vertical loads and the
horizontal and vertical displacements were logged. The vertical
load is constant during a test and the horizontal load gives a
measure of the friction force generated at the contact interface
that can be used to calculate friction coefcients.
A good method for displaying this is through friction loops
(displayed on the right hand side of the gure above) where
the friction coefcient is
plotted against horizontal
displacement.
The average friction coefcient
for each complete friction
loop was also calculated from
the integral, and the trend is
plotted against time. Typical
examples of the friction trends
are shown in the gures to the
right for a Ni-Cr-Co alloy stub
rubbed against a at HVOF
Cr2C3 plate. Both specimens
were tested in the as received
condition. Initial and nal
friction coefcient loops are
plotted against horizontal
direction, shown in (a) and
(b) respectively. The average
friction coefcient was plotted
against time, shown in (c).
Results
All but one of the tests were performed in a steam
environment. One test was carried out without steam for
comparative purposes. The graph below shows that the
addition of steam reduces the friction coefcient.
The graph below shows a comparison of friction results for
different materials in the as-received condition:
The following graph shows a comparison between materials
that have been pre-aged for 3000 hours in a steam environment.
Tests were performed on as-received and pre-exposed
specimens to compare the effect of aged material. Results are
presented in the following gures for two different materials.
For the Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy against stellite material, ageing
increases the friction. By contrast, with the MCrAlY coating,
pre-ageing markedly decreases the friction coefcient.
The following table shows a summary of the nal friction
coefcient results with respect to material and ageing
treatment:
Visual Inspection of the Wear Scar
Despite the attention given to sample alignment in the design
of the test system, it was found that full contact was not
always achieved over the sample surfaces. The following
gures show examples of good and bad alignment:
Conclusions
The work presented here reveals that the addition of steam
in a tribological environment clearly inuences the friction
between both as-received and aged materials.
The majority of materials experienced an increase in friction
coefcient with age, the only exception being the MCrAlY
coated stub, due to its lubricious properties which form during
testing.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Jim Banks and David Laing for
their technical expertise, and would like to acknowledge
funding from the Technology Strategy Board and from the
Department of Business Innovation and Science for the work
reported in this paper.
Reciprocating wear in a steam environment
L. J. Brown, M. G. Gee & J. W. Nunn
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, UK
Stub Material
Coating
on Stub
Plate
Material
Coating
on Plate
Pre-
exposure, h
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite - 0
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite - 500
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite - 3000
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 0
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 500
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 3000
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite - 0
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite - 500
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite - 3000
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 0
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 500
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 3000
Ni-Cr-Co alloy MCrAlY Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 0
Ni-Cr-Co alloy MCrAlY Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 500
Ni-Cr-Co alloy MCrAlY Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 3000
Stub Material
Coating
on Stub
Plate
Material
Coating
on Plate
Pre-
exposure, h
Final
Friction
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite - 0 0.5
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite - 500 0.8
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite - 3000 0.95
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 0 0.68
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 500 0.9
Co-Ni-Cr-W alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 3000 -
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite - 0 0.65
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite - 500 0.65
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite - 3000 0.85
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 0 0.7
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 500 0.85
Ni-Cr-Co alloy - Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 3000 1.2
Ni-Cr-Co alloy MCrAlY Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 0 0.95
Ni-Cr-Co alloy MCrAlY Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 500 0.95
Ni-Cr-Co alloy MCrAlY Stellite HVOF Cr2C3 3000 1.0
www.npl.co.uk
Bad alignment
Good alignment
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No Steam
WithSteam
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Time, h
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Ni-Cr-Co, MCrAlY/HVOF Cr2C3
Ni-Cr-Co/HVOF Cr 2 C 3
Ni-Cr-Co/Stellite
Ni-Cr-Co/Stellite Co-Ni-Cr-W/HVOF Cr 2 C 3

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Ni-Cr-Co /HVOF Cr 2 C 3
Ni-Cr-Co MCrAlY/HVOF Cr 2 C 3
Co-Ni-Cr-W/Stellite
Ni-Cr-Co/Stellite
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500 h pre-exposure
No pre-exposure
3000 h pre-exposure
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Hori zontal Di spl acement
Friction
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Hori zontal Di spl acement
Friction
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Horizontal Displacement
Friction
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Horizontal Displacement
Friction
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Plot of Friction Loops a) Initial Friction,
b) Final Friction and
c) Overall Friction vs. Time
Co-Ni-Cr-W
MCrAlY
(a)
(b)
(c)