An ad-hoc fretting wear tribotester design for thin steel wires

Steel wire ropes experience fretting wear damage when the rope runs over a sheave promoting an oscillatory motion between the wires. Consequently, wear scars appear between the contacting wires leading to an increase of the stress field and the following rupture of the wires due to fatigue. That is why the understanding and prediction of the fretting wear phenomena of thin wires is fundamental in order to improve the performance of steel wire ropes. The present research deals with the design of an ad-hoc fretting wear test machine for thin wires. The test apparatus is designed for testing thin wires with a maximum diameter of 1.0 mm, at slip amplitudes ranging from 5 to 300 μm, crossing angle between 0-90°, and contacting force ranging from 0,5 to 5 N. The working principle of displacement amplitude and contacting force as well as the crossing angle between the wires are described. Preliminary studies for understanding the fretting wear characteristics are presented, analysing 0.45 mm diameter cold-drawn eutectoid carbon steel (0.8% C) wires (tensile strength higher than 3000 MPa)