Surface Damage Under Reciprocating Sliding

Reciprocating sliding is often present in mechanical systems. This particular sliding condition is called fretting when sliding amplitude is small compared to the contact area. Fretting also commonly refers to the degradation of the fatigue properties of a material due to repeated sliding of two contacting surfaces. The small relative displacement amplitudes range typically between 10-100 μm. Examples of practical situations where cracking or wear induced by fretting influence mechanical integrity include such various applications as bolted and riveted joints, key-way-shaft coupling and shrink-fitted couplings. To prevent fretting damage, fretting wear and fretting fatigue have been widely studied for more than thirty years considering macroscopic and microscopic phenomena.