Interactive mechanisms of fretting wear and corrosion of steel wires in alkaline corrosion medium

Fretting corrosion tests of steel wires inside a rope were performed on a self-made fretting wear test rig to understand the fretting corrosion behaviors of steel wires under the environment of alkaline mine water trickling using a simulated alkaline corrosion medium. The results indicate that the corrosion rate of steel wire decreases rapidly and then increases with the increase in the duration of immersion. For late immersion, the corrosion rate tends to be smooth because of the large accumulation of corrosion products. It is also found that the evolution of friction coefficient vs fretting cycles can be divided into five stages. With the increase in the fretting cycles, there is an increase in the weight loss of materials and the evolution processes of damage rate can also be divided into four stages. All the results conclude that interaction of corrosion and wear dominates the fretting corrosion and leads to material loss.