Generation and verification of wear load spectrum

Generally wear test is conducted under constant load. But the test results have great difference with the actual situation, because most of the parts and components are usually subjected to varying loads during the actual service. Therefore spectrum loading tests have to be performed when the wear behavior cannot be assessed based on simple constant load with the required level of confidence. For this purpose, wear load spectrum is first proposed in this paper. First, this paper details the method applied for collection and analysis of appropriate load data and generation of the wear load spectrum. The method may also serve as guidelines for those cases where new wear load spectra has to be created. Secondly in order to verify the feasibility of this method, a finite element-based method is presented for simulating the wear of a sliding bearing. The two-dimensional wear simulation model is based on Archard's equation. The simulation results proved the feasibility of this method. Finally the effect of the loading sequence on wear is studied.