Effect of contact forms on the wear of hard silicon surfaces by soft polymers

The mechanism of hard surfaces worn by soft polymers is not clearly understood.In this paper,a new hypothesis has been proposed,it holds that the stress acting on the hard surface under certain working conditions is the main reason for wear of the hard surface by a soft polymer.The hypothesis was investigated by changing the contact form between tribo-pairs.For this,friction tests between six polymer spheres and smooth,rough,and inclined monocrystalline silicon surfaces were carried out.The results show that for the same tribo-pair,the silicon surface will not be worn in some contact forms,but in other contact forms it will be worn.We believe the wear of hard surface by a soft polymer is the result of the combined stress state action on the hard surface.