False brinelling behaviour of high carbon bearing steel under varying conditions

Experiments are conducted for investigating the effect of normal pressure, sliding amplitude and oscillating sliding frequency on friction, wear coefficient and threshold energy for wear activation of 52100 high carbon bearing quality steel (ASTM A295) during a false brinelling test. The cylinder-on-cylinder set-up is used. The investigation showed that the friction coefficient increases with increasing normal pressure and sliding amplitude; however, there is no influence of an increase in oscillating sliding frequency. Similarly, the wear coefficient increases with increasing normal pressure and sliding amplitude; however, unlike the friction coefficient, it increases with an increase in oscillating sliding frequency. Different conditions do not have a significant influence on the threshold energy for wear activation. By incorporating a varying friction and wear coefficient with changing sliding parameters, the analytical prediction for false brinelling are improved by 10–50% over the constant parameter model.