Residual stresses and sliding wear

The residual stresses that develop during the wear of AISI-SAE 1018 and 4340 steels have been examined. The entire three-dimensional stress tensor was obtained. A normal stress perpendicular to the surface, predicted by theory, has been found, but its magnitude is too small to affect the wear rate. There are also significant shear stresses. The wear process rapidly alters any initial stress distribution produced by heat treatment or peening to such a degree that the wear rate is not affected by these stresses, unless they are initially larger than those that can be produced by the wear parameters.