Numerical simulation of sliding wear for a polymer–polymer sliding contact in an automotive application

Injection moulded polymer-based components are important for cost effective and fast production/assembly of auxiliary mechanisms in automotive industry. Wear is one of the critical factors, which influences the reliability and useful life in such mechanical components. Experimental determination of life parameters in terms of wear has both a cost and time impact. Therefore, the ability to predict wear at the development stage enables the designers to come up with a better design, longer useful life and more reliable products. This paper presents a numerical simulation of wear for a polymer–polymer sliding surface contact in dry conditions. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used as a tool to calculate nodal pressures at the contact area for small sliding steps. These pressures are then inputted to a customized wear calculating routine. The routine uses averaged wear coefficients (wear rates) obtained from custom designed experiments. The FE contact geometry is modified after each sliding step to account for the contact height decay thus determining wear volume loss over usage time and predicting the worn geometry.