Effect of pin specimen contact length in the sliding direction on tribological results of pin-on-disc tests

Tribological properties of a material depend on a wide range of parameters/conditions. While some of them are obvious, some are quite subtle. One of these subtle parameters has been identified and reported here. Under sliding conditions, whenever surface layers are formed due to the interaction at the sliding interface (e.g., tribochemical interaction), the resultant tribological response has been conjectured to depend upon the relative length of the pin, parallel to the sliding direction, with respect to the corresponding length of the disc track. The results obtained from the experiments reported in this paper as well as those reported by different researchers in the past, furnish evidence to support this conjecture. It can be considered as a general parameter because of this wide spectrum of applications. It is shown in this paper that this parameter helps in selecting the optimum contact geometry of the pin under various experimental conditions. This might reduce the observed scatter in tribological test results. Such a study leads to the conclusion that, for tribological testing, a square/rectangular contact configuration of pin is preferable to a circular one. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.