Abstract
The creation and mechanical properties of tribolms is a critical factor in the life of various mechanisms. The creation of these tribolms can result from a chemical interaction between materials, a physical creation through mechanical energy, or by mechanochemistry which is a combination of both. Historically, various tribological tests focusing on wear and endurance have been created to understand the performance of anti-wear, extreme pressure, and corro-sion additives. The main downfall of these tests were that they are either primarily focused on pure sliding, a wear regime that may be too aggressive to fully understand the creation and performance of the tribolms, or the test lengths were extremely long which prevented detailed analysis of large experimental designs. This has created a lack of understanding of how tribolms are created and their characteristic attributes which will aid in higher quality design of mechanisms to optimize their life and minimize the impact on natural resources. The objective of this research is to develop a methodology to measure, characterize, and better understand the mechanics of tribolms created from molybdenum compounds. This work was done as an interdisciplinary approach, which integrated metrology, statis-tics, contact mathematics, and chemistry, to achieve the research goal. This included: Wear testing of a range of commercial steels, in unlubricated conditions, and looking at the eects of normal load, sliding speed, hardness, and the type of mechanics (sliding, rolling, mixed), was examined. This work was used to create a proposed model for adhesive wear to improve on the one postulated by Archard in 1953. This information was then used to create a new basis of understanding for the mechanics of rolling wear before moving into the development of a new test method to evaluate the eects of tribolms. Tribological testing of various molybdenum compounds in a synthetic oil carrier were performed to understand the mechanochemical nature of the tribolms creation. Samples were created and tested using a Nano-Indenter with a Berkovich tip. The impact of the created tribolms was illustrated through a modication of the surface mechanics including hardness and modulus of elasticity. The modication of these surface properties was then correlated to dierent types of mechanochemical interactions. The impact of these tribolms were then validated through a newly designed scung wear test and a rolling bearing contact fatigue test. Computational analysis using Machine Learning algorithms was performed to study the connections of various physical properties, chemical composition (Sulfur, Phosphorus, Molyb-denum), and the tribolms mechanics to life in a rolling bearing test. This work is expected to illuminate how tribolms eect the surface mechanics of rolling elements and how that will have an impact on the quality and optimization of various mechanisms.