Paper 18: Effect of Interface Geometry on the Wear of Graphite Sliding against Stainless Steel

The specific wear rate of reactor-grade graphite discs, sliding against En 58B stainless-steel cylinders, was determined for a range of theoretical contact pressures for unidirectional, constant-speed sliding in laboratory air. In many instances, wear was found to be discontinuous and associated with blistering of the graphite surface; the severity of blistering increased with increasing maximum contact pressure, but became negligible at low contact pressures, when the specific wear rate tended to a constant value—the microscopic component. At very high contact pressures, wear resulted predominantly from ploughing, i.e. instantaneous brittle fracture.