MECHANICAL SYSTEMS WEAR AND DEGRADATION PROCESSES MODELLING

Abstract

Mechanical systems (e.g. combustion engine, gear etc.) consists of many frictionpairs, and their surfaces, by being in contact, simultaneously produce wearparticles. The task, based on the study of number, morphology, shape, size, colour ofparticles, is to identify which tribologically significant processes run in the system.The decisive factor is a production of characteristic particles that corresponds to thecharacteristic modes of wear. Wear dynamics can unambiguously be defined andassessed by intensity of creation, material comparison, distribution, size,morphology of particles, etc. The paper deals with ways of applying mathematicalmethods to evaluate the result of tribodiagnostics related to vehicle combustionengines. The idea is based on a trend evaluation and a discriminative analysis thatmakes possible to describe one qualitative parameter (complex technical state) bymeans of several quantitative parameters (i.e. quantity of diagnostic parameters).The results have been verified by means of considerable statistical data of T–3–930engines made in the Czech Republic which are used in ground vehicles.