Relationship of surface slope distributions to the wear mechanisms of ceramics

Many ceramics wear by more than a single wear mechanism. To understand how different wear mechanisms contribute to the wear properties of ceramics, quantitative measures of those mechanisms are required. Surface slope distribution analysis was investigated as a method of quantitatively analysing wear mechanism signatures, based on a simple model of the variation of slope with wear mechanism. Slope distribution was shown to be similar for materials within the same class of ceramics, e.g. silicon carbides. However, the range of slope parameters for a mechanism overlapped with that of other mechanisms, so that a mechanism was not found to yield a unique combination of slope parameters. A comparison of wear rate and slope distribution showed that wear could be correlated with specific sections of the distribution, and that this correlation was dependent upon the ‘dominant’ wear mechanism. Secondary effects on the slope distribution, e.g. porosity, invalidated the data for that material for use in slope analysis.