Paper 4: An Experimental Study of the Frictional Behaviour of Steels at Elevated Temperatures

Many investigators, by the manner of presentation of results, have implied that for any given material combination and atmosphere, the coefficient of friction is a function of temperature alone. Experiments are described which were designed to evaluate the importance of the sliding and temperature histories on the unlubricated sliding performance of steels at temperatures up to 500°C. Only for a hardened steel, when mild wear prevailed, was the specimen history unimportant, and, in this case, μ was virtually independent of temperature. With materials exhibiting severe wear, sliding produced changes in friction which were attributed to hardening of the surfaces and when the thickness of oxide films became comparable with the size of transferred particles, exposure to temperature could modify subsequent frictional behaviour.