Sliding wear corrosion of ceramics

This paper describes experiments to examine how sliding wear corrosion experiments can be carried out with simple laboratory equipment that is in common usage in tribological testing laboratories. Experiments were conducted on three ceramics; two aluminas with different alumina volume fractions and one tetragonally stabilised zirconia. Three different test fluids were examined; these were de-ionised water, 0.1 M HCl and 0.1 M NaOH. It was found that the sliding wear corrosion test system performed well, with the two aluminas both exhibiting increasing wear with decreasing pH, and the zirconia showing decreasing wear with decreasing pH.