Recently, developments in automotive industries have increased competition. So, the design and development of new products have become more time sensitive. But an equally important aspect is the durability and reliability of new products. Currently, the reliability of products is tested and examined using traditional laboratory methods. In this traditional approach, the products are tested until failure, which is usually a costly and time consuming process. Additionally, this approach increases the time from design to market. Reducing the testing duration of new products will reduce the product development cost and time to market. Therefore there is an increase in employing Accelerate Life Test (ALT) methods by many companies. ALT is the method of testing a product sample by applying more severe environmental conditions than normal conditions. Although cost and time can be reduced by this method, the method is insufficient in many cases because it often does not accurately determine the root cause of potential failures. Consequently, this need has given rise to the development of prediction models to enable a better understanding of product reliability. According to many studies, the main reason for the failure of mechanical components is the loss of material on the surfaces, in other words, wear. Previous research efforts have created a platform for wear simulation by combining Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with mathematical wear equations.
This research is focused on reducing the wear simulation time by using an
axisymmetric model and developing a mathematical equation in which the wear on the contacting surfaces in relative motion can be calculated by simulating the wear on only one surface in contact. This approach should make the FEA model more time and cost efficient. In this research, a critical factor (wear rate) is determined from experimental data, i.e., wear tests. Based on these results, the local wear is firstly calculated and then integrated over the sliding distance. Then, a series of FEA simulations are done in a loop by updating the wear coefficient and load conditions. Finally, the simulation results and mathematically calculated results from a derived equation are compared with experimental results. The simulation results show a reasonably good agreement with the experimental results. Moreover, the simulation model gives more details like the distribution of contact pressure and the spreading of stress at the contact surfaces.
