Single asperity abrasion of coated nodular cast iron

In the sliding contact between a rigid indenter and a softer deforming surface, a wear scar is formed in the softer surface. This wear scar consists of a groove flanked by two shoulders, where part of the material from the groove is transferred to these shoulders and the rest is actually removed from the surface as wear debris. The proportion of actually removed material is characterised by the degree of wear parameter ξ. This paper focusses on the experimental determination of the degree of wear for nodular cast iron with a range of hard surface layers. This is done using a pin-on-disk set-up that is located in the chamber of a scanning electron microscope. From these experimental results, an empirical model that describes the volumetric abrasive wear of coated nodular cast iron in single indenter scratching is developed.