An unconventional approach in polymer wear: online vision system
Keywords:
Online vision system, polymer wear, quantitative micrographyAbstract
Tribology which deals with interaction of materials has robust link with surface morphology of contacting bodies. Adequate information on surface state during the interaction is essential for understanding the constructive/destructive nature of wear, especially for polymer composites. Such information can be acquired using recently developed advanced electronic imaging systems to study the morphological changes of moving surface. In the present research, polymer composite is tested against steel counterface under combined rolling/sliding condition. A high speed camera system in conjunction with a reflected light bright field optical microscope is used to acquire contact surface micrographs during testing. The acquired real-time micrographs are post processed in order to quantitatively estimate the area occupied by specific surface scars. Image processing techniques such as blur estimation, segmentation by local thresholding and grey scale granulometry were used to have a quantitative estimate of the surface state. The area of segmented regions from the values of grey scale granulometry validates the self-healing mechanism complemented by resin back transfer phenomena. It is also evident from this study that a substantial contact area should be investigated in wear analysis. The present research clearly points out that a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis of real-time micrographs is indispensable for wear surface investigations.
