Modeling of wear in silicon nitride in rolling-sliding contact

Despite the intertwining wear mechanisms involved in rolling-sliding contact under water it was possible to simulate wear using a simple model relying on a linear dependency between the wear volume and the sliding distance. Local geometrical changes directly affect contact pressure and tensile stresses. Due to progressive wear tensile stresses decrease and modify their distribution to follow the changes occurring to the contact zone. Crack propagation on the surface accordingly follows the tensile stress trajectory path.