Research on torsional fretting wear behaviors and damage mechanisms of stranded-wire helical spring

Wear on the local area of steel wires’ surface is attributed to torsional fretting on the working process of stranded-wire helical spring. A mathematical model to calculate normal contact force and angular displacement amplitude among the wires is established first when the spring is impacted. With the experimental parameters obtained from the model, the torsional fretting test, which stimulates torsional fretting among the wires in the working process of the spring, is realized successfully on a newly developed fretting tester. Torsional fretting behaviors are strongly dependent upon normal contact force, angular displacement amplitude, and number of cycles. There are three basic types of T-θ curves (short for torque), angular displacement curves during the process of torsional fretting, namely, parallelogram, elliptic, and linear T-θ curves. To analyze the damage mechanisms, distribution maps of oxygen in the wear scar of spring wires under different working conditions are revealed. The damage gets slight in the partial slip region, mainly with the abrasive wear and the slight oxidative wear, whereas the wear mechanisms are mainly the abrasive wear, the oxidative wear, and the delamination, accompanied with obvious plastic deformation in the mixed fretting and slip regions.