The correlation between friction coefficient and areal topography parameters for AISI 304 steel sliding against AISI 52100 steel

Dry wear experiments provide an insight detail on how severely contacting surfaces change under unlubricated sliding condition. The theory of dry sliding wear is used for understanding mixed-lubrication regime in which asperity interactions play a significant role in controlling of the friction coefficient (f). The purpose of this work is to study the tribological behavior of AISI 304 steel in contact with AISI 52100 steel during wear. Both materials are used in rolling element bearings commanly. Experiments are carried out using a pin-on-disc tribometer under dry friction condition. The areal (three dimensional, 3D) topography parameters are measured using a 3D white light interferometer (WLI) with a 10× objective. After wear tests, wear mechanisms are analyzed utilizing scanning electron microscope (SEM). Factorial design with custom response surface design (C-RSD) is used to study the mutual effect of load and speed on response variables such as f and topography parameters. It is observed that the root mean square roughness (S) decreases with an increase in sliding time. Within the range of sliding time, S decreases with an increase in the normal load. Within the range of sliding speed and normal load, it is found that S, mean summit curvature (S), and root mean square slope (S) are positively correlated with f. Whereas, negative correlation is found between f and correlation length (S), mean summit radius (R), and core roughness depth (S).