Influence of high surface contact temperature on the friction and wear of ultra hard electrically conductive ceramic composites

The project aims at developing new geometric wear models to establish wear curves of spehrical-plane contacts of ultrahard ceramic materials such as WC, ZrO2, ZrB2, SiC, TiB2, and B4. Oxidation and chemical processes and their influence on friction and wear of those materials in high temperature environment (>600°) will be investigated by means of high temperature pin-on-disk tribotesting and surface analysis.