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Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

Numerical Simulation & Experimental study of wear depth and

Contact pressure distribution Of Aluminum MMC Pin on Disc
Tribometer
Suresh. R1, a*, M. Prasanna Kumar2,b, S.Basavarajappa3,c , Kiran TS4,e,
Mahesh Yeole5,d & Naresh Katare6,f
1
Bapuji institute of engineering & Technology, Davanagere, Karnataka state, India.
2
Department of Studies in Mechanical Engineering, University B.D.T College of Engineering, Davanagere-577004, Karnataka State, India.
3
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Dharwad- 580029, Karnataka state, India.
4
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalpataru Institute of Technology,Tiptur -572202, Karnataka State, India.
5&6
CAE Professionals, Mumbai-400079, Maharashtra state, India.
a
sumohi@gmail.com(corresponding author) , bdrmpkumar.dvg@gmail.com. cbasavarajappas@yahoo.com,
d
kirants111@gmail.com, eMaheshYeola@gmail.com & fNareshkx@hotmail.com

Abstract

This paper is focused on Simulation and analysis of a simple tribo system confirming to ASTM G99, constituted by a deformable cylindrical pin
that rotates around a rigid disc surface with friction. Aluminum6061 Metal Matrix Composite samples have been experimentally analyzed to
investigate the Tribological characteristics of wear for various loading conditions with a constant sliding rotational velocity. The finite element
software ANSYS 15 is used for this wear simulation. Assumptions were made that wear depth is not enough to change the contact pressure
magnitude. The wear depth and contact pressure are being evaluated by the Archad’s linear wear law with the Euler integration formulation
absorbed in Ansys. The wear coefficient (k) obtained from the experimental results which also accounted the effect of oxide formation & debris
during dry slide wear. Simulation of wear involves solution of a general contact problem, which is highly non-linear due to the contact boundary
conditions between the interfaces. The prediction of wear depth is evaluated from contact pressure, which is obtained from finite element
simulation results & it is an input into Archard’s wear equation. It is found that simulation results are confirming in line with the experimental
results.

Keywords: Wear simulation; Aluminium Metal Matrix composite; Contact pressure; Sliding contact; Wear coeffient.

1. Introductions

Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (AMMC) is extensively used in the automobile industry, defense, aerospace,
and marine applications because of their lesser weight. Particulate composites are easily fabricated compared with
continuous reinforcements. The Metal Matrix Composites, especially particle reinforced are having drawn enormous
_________
∗
Corresponding author: Tel: +91-816-228 2696 (O); Fax: +91-816-228 2994 (O)
E-mail address: asumohi@gmail.com (Suresh R)

2214-7853 © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of Advanced Materials, Manufacturing, Management and Thermal Science (AMMMT 2016).
 Suresh. R et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228 11219

importance from researchers in field of space, aircraft vehicle, automobile, marine and sport. These MMC exhibits
poor ductility because of inclusion of ceramic particles which are brittle in nature. Most primarily these MMC are
display supremacy in their physical properties such as wear resistance, elastic modulus, strength and thermal
expansion as compared to un-reinforced metal and alloys [1, 4, 20].

Wear is complex process and doesn’t depend on and only material property but also other process related variables.
Frequently Numerical studies are established on the finite element technique and used to the optimization the
material properties by altering their inherit parameters such as the aspect ratios, volume fraction of reinforcements.
This paper will be debating only contact analysis & their pressure distributions with FEA simulation by Ansys
software. It has been studied that the wear can be classified based on its material failure mechanism viz, abrasive
wear, adhesive wear, corrosion and surface fatigue.[2]. Steel might wear out in any these modes, but adhesive and
abrasive wear are commonly detected. The wear process is dynamic in its nature. The FEA wear calculations have
nonlinear material properties and frictional contact problem. This nonlinear analysis has surface-to-surface contact
problems. [6].
Anders Söderberg et al.[11] have carried out research for wear prediction of the pad and rotor contact by using
commercial version FEA software. Recent investigations have found that wear coefficient (k) is an important
parameter to be considered in wear test because it accounts not only wear rate but also it give emphasis on hardness
of materials, the applied load. [13]. For Coating application adhesion is one of the prime factor, it depends on
spraying parameters, materials, roughness of substrate and residual stress in coating. If adhesion of coating is not
sufficient in short span of time coating may pull out which results in failure or wear. It is important that sprayed
coating should be hard, resistant to wear or corrosive environment [4].

G.G. Adams et al [24] reviewed that contact modeling with an emphasis on the forces of contact and their
relationship to the geometrical, material and mechanical properties of the contacting bodies. Single asperity contact
models are treated. The contact of a single asperity and the combined effects of a great many contacts. Included are
effects of elastic and plastic deformations, depth–dependent plasticity models, tangential loading, non-Hertzian
geometries, and adhesion.In contact problem; topographically smooth surfaces such that real contact area is the
exact replica of the apparent area of contact. Thus contact between two bodies always occurs at or near the peaks of
contacting asperities and so the real area of contact will generally be much less than the apparent contact area.
However, real surfaces always possess some degree of roughness.

Due to the fact that industrial testing could be very expensive and time consuming, the usage of the tribometer is
able to save test material costs, reduce machine downtime cost for testing, and complete more tests in a set period of
time since the tribometer involves rotational sliding behavior, the numerical modelling of the tribometer could be
analyzed . Therefore the numerical modelling of the normal contact and sliding contacts will be discussed in this
paper.

2. Experimental method

2.1 Description of Experimental set-up.

The laboratory wear equipment consists of Tribometer-TR 20LE, made by Ducom, Bengaluru, India as shown in
Figure-1. The wear testing apparatus consists of stationary pin held against rotating disc and the pin movement was
restricted in all directions during test. Before starting the test, make ensured that the lever arm of Tribometer which
holds the pin must be perfectly horizontal. The counter weight was used to balance the loading of pin. Rotating disc
is made of EN31 hardened steel. The testing pins are of casted Aluminum 6061MMC of Diameter 8x30 mm long.
Prior to conducting each wear test, the disc contact surface should be cleaned with acetone to remove any dirt. The
Pin specimen should be cleaned with acetone and air dried during each test. Volume loss of a pin material is
measured by weight loss of pin in each wear test and is recorded with a digital electronic mass balance.
11220 Suresh. R et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228

2.2 Tribomaterial for investigation.

This investigation was focused on to evaluate the dry slide wear rate of Aluminum alloy 6061MMC which is
reinforced with 8 %-Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) & 2%- Graphite (Gr) volume of particles with an average particle size
of 25 µm. Stir casting method was used to cast the MMC by blending the Al2O3 & Gr particles into base metal alloy
Al6061. This casting involves mixing of the preheated reinforcement of particulates of Alumina (Al2O3) & graphite
(Gr) by mechanical stirring. The materials properties for the pin and the disc are listed in the table-1. It is the most
economical casting methods for composites with discontinuous fibres or particulates. The benefit of alumina
includes, it is availed at low cost. It possesses a high compression conduction, thermal stability, strength, wear
resistance but it is brittle in nature. The Graphite added in this MMC acts a dry lubricant during dry sliding. Disc
steel material possesses ductile property but excellent thermal conduction. The SEM micrographs display the fairly
uniform distribution of Al2O3 and Gr particulates throughout the matrix alloy with its lower porosity as shown in
Figure-2.
Zoltan Lestyana et al.[23] has studied & simulated the wear behaviour and Contact pressure of a dry sliding
friction system of palettes(alumina ceramic) and 100Cr6 steel.

Figure-1.Pin-on-disc Tribometer.

2.3. Experimental condition.

In this experiment, the disc was rotated with constant 600 rpm with variable loading of 10, 30 & 50N by
keeping time & sliding speed constant for the sliding distance of 2000m at constant sliding velocity of 3.76 m/s. But
the FEA simulation result tabulated here is only for 50N load (see the table 2). Testing was carried out at an average
room temperature of 25◦ C and around 50% of relative humidity.

Part Material Young’s Modulus GPa Poisson's Density Hardness

Ratio kg/m3 HV
Pin Aluminium6061MMC 86.3 0.3 2796 60.6
Disc Steel 200 0.3 7850 698

Table -1. Material Properties of Pin & Disc.

FEA dry slide simulation was carried out to measure the wear depth based on contact pressure as the contact surface
area changes with respect to time and its sliding distance. Current research is focused on the study of the transient
non-linear analysis to capture the non-linear behaviour interaction of Pin and Disc in transient loads [22].
 Suresh. R et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228 11221

Load(N) Speed(m/sec) Distance (m) Time Velocity Track Radius (mm):

(min) (rpm)

50 3.76 2000 9.26 600 70

Table -2. Experimental parameters.

3. Finite Element Modelling.

3.1 Wear Modeling

Archard’s law of wear, calculates the wear rate (w) (height loss per unit time) as a linear function of the sliding
speed (v), applied pressure (p), hardness of the softer material (H) Wear coefficient (K) as depicted in equation 1. K
is a constant ranging from 10-3 to 10-7 W/mK for known materials [21].

W = K×S× P…….1

W= (K/H) PV………..2
In above equation, K is the coefficient of wear obtained from pin on disc experiment. The sliding distance S can be
derived from load P, the rotational speed of the disk (v) and time (t) that the disk has rotated. It has been found by
many researchers that with same combination of materials, if surface condition changes which results in change in K
as well. The Archard wear law emphasis only on contact surface areas and does not take into consideration of
surface roughness effect and time. If any surface changes would be accounted by the experimental wear coefficient
(K) [21]. The total amount of pin height loss was obtained from the change in mass of the pin during the
experiments. FEA modelling of pin on disc was simulated by using commercial software Ansys workbench-15 with
good Pre-processing, and post-processing stages. The increased number of elements will be able to check real
pressure distribution between pin and disc, due to the different materials by choosing an accurate friction
formulation [5,6, 22].

Figure-2. SEM of Aluminum6061 MMC, showing the uniform distribution of 8 %-Al2O3 & 2%- Gr

The FEA results depend on wear coefficient, sliding distance. The wear depth is independent of the product k*s. The
reduced modulus of contact between two materials is a function of the Young’s moduli & Passion’s ratio
11222 Suresh. R et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228

3.2 Contact model and friction.

After 3D model geometry (see Figure 3), the mesh was configured by edge sizing function was used in the
contact area to refine the mesh. The greater is the number of elements near contact the better the results will
converge within appropriate bounds. To prevent the two surfaces from passing through each other, Augmented
Lagrange Contact formulation method was used. Augmented Lagrange algorithm, over the iterations removes the
geometrical penetration. Friction plays a vital role in wear calculations by FEA and coefficient of friction (μ) need to
be taken from experimental setup, and defined using the Coulomb friction model. μ can depend on various
parameters like clock time, temperature at contact, contact pressure, sliding distance. For this simulation μ=0.6 is
considered.

3.3. Meshing

FEA model is optimized by means of controlling total number of nodal degrees of freedom and solution time by
using advanced mesh options like size control, local refinement and contact sizing. Following five types of elements
were used in FEA setup as shown in Figure- 4. Wear calculations are done on smooth transition of contact and
target elements which are four-noded quadrilateral elements (Conta174, Target170). Smooth transition helps to get
actual results without any distortion. In region of non-interest, coarse mesh has been used, whereas region of interest
is meshed with finer elements as we can see in Figure-5. The mesh sensitivity is performed to verify the results
variation with element size [3].

Figure-3. 3D Model of Tribometer

3.4. Boundary conditions for FE model:

The pin can be considered as rigid and the Disc surface can be considered as flexible (rotating), the pin surface
elements are considered as rigid target elements and the bottom surface elements of the steel disc are considered as
flexible contact elements Augmented-Larangian method is used as the contact algorithm. Wear calculations are done
on the output generated from FEA in previous iteration which uses contact pressure and sliding distance. These
calculations are common for all load conditions, viz. normal loads of 10, 30 & 50 N applied on the top face of the
pin. Displacement in the x & y (in-plane) directions at the pin were constrained; only angular rotation of the pin
around the disc is allowed which results in wear track (Figure- 6). Rotary joint condition is applied between pin and
disc as shown in the Figure-7. The loads and boundary conditions are as shown above are as consistent with the
experimental test setup.
Suresh. R et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228 11223

FEA Mesh Summary

Total nodes = 95020
Contact elements = 4809
Solid elements = 109075
Total elements = 113886
----------
SOLID 185 – 109075
CONTA174 – 1980
TARGET170 – 2678
SURF154 – 152
MPC184 – 1

Figure- 4. Overall Mesh of the Pin on Disc contact model

Figure- 5. Finer Mesh of the Pin on wear track contact region

.
11224 Suresh. R et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228

Figure- 6. Frictional & Joint contact

Figure -7. Loads & Boundary Conditions.

 Suresh. R et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228 11225

4. Results and Discussions.

As FEA is technology which disintegrate the full solid model in finite number of elements, the correctness of the
results depends on the mesh quality; finer mesh require more the computational time. Optimal balance was between
the results and solution time by performing the mesh sensitivity analysis

As wear depth is not sole factor to change the contact pressure in subsequent FEA iterations, the assumption of the
linear wear law is valid [15]. It is evident that the pressure distribution is even at the inside region of contact whereas
the edges have maximum contact pressure concentrations. It is observed that wear initiate at edges, and progress as
contact expanded to central area as illustrated in the following results as depicted in Figure-9 [17]. The results from
the wear calculations from FEA simulation and the experimental ones are in reasonable agreement and are tabulated
in table-3. [15].

The FEA simulation contour of wear depth, contact pressure, penetrations & sliding distance at load 50 N are as
illustrated in Figure -8a. Worn experimental specimen indicating its wear depth profile is shown in Figure -8b. It is
very clearly understood that there is increase of wear depth & contact pressure with increasing load. P. Prabhu et al.
[19] found similar results. For one rotation pin on disc Simulation, the error % results are tabulated in table-3 and are
within the acceptable vicinity. Kulkarni et al [10] found similar results for dry slide wear of Normalized 217 and
Tempered 554 steel pins.

Figure-8a, Contours of Wear depth, contacts pressure, sliding distance & penetration for 50N load.

Figure-8b, Experimental specimen showing Wear depth for 50N load

11226 Suresh. R et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228

Figure-9, Wear initiates at the edges

Figure-8. Contact Pressure vs Applied Load.

Applied Load Parameter Experimental FEA %Error

simulation
50 Wear Depth (m) 3.38E-04 3.63E-04 7.3
Contact Pressure 2.088 2.2303 6.9
(Mpa)

Table-3 Deviation of Simulation result from Experimental

5. Conclusions.

This research is focusing on experimental & FEA Simulation on wear depth & contact pressure evaluation of
Aluminum 6061 Metal matrix Composite. The most common Archard’s wear model has been incorporated in Ansys
Workbench 15.0 as user defined function to simulate wear depth. In this current simulation, a transient analysis has
been carried out to capture the accuracy of the wear results
 Suresh. R et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 11218–11228 11227

Figure-9. Wear Depth vs Applied Load

The wear process is treated as an initial-value problem in this Simulation. On sliding surfaces, the contact
pressure distribution and wear pattern can be easily related to each other. Flatter contact pressure distribution due to
less friction and more steeply sloped contact pressure results in more friction. It is obvious that if the there is
adequate friction, the trailing edge of the pin will lift off of the rotating disc. The following conclusion can be drawn.

1. It has been assumed that the contact pressure magnitude doesn’t only depend on wear rate in subsequent
FEA iterations.
2. The simulation was done for two revolutions of the disc only; however it can be extended to as many cycles
as required.
3. The wear coefficient (k) has been derived from experimental set up.
4. In FEA simulation, mesh sensitivity analysis and contact algorithm parameter variations effect on results
are performed. It gives good agreement between FEA results and those of the experimental results which
enumerates that the methodology used in modelling FEA simulation are accurate.
5. FEA simulation results can be obtained as averaged across elements, which in turn taken from respective
nodes.
6. Wear (height loss) is obtained from nodal pressure values at contact elements. In experiment, it’s expected
that normal load is evenly passed distributed over pin to disc contact

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to our Director Tushar Chowhan who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful research work. Also Rahul phadke and Atul borkar of Ansys India, Pune who
helped me in finalizing the results.

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