Wear Particle Life in a Sliding Contact Under Dry Conditions : Third Body Approach

The third body approach is a very useful and pragmatic tool for analysing and understanding the friction and wear behaviour of sliding materials. This approach, introduced by M. Godet in the middle of the 1970’s, is based on the concept of dynamic screen played by the whole debris (“ third body ”) detached from the rubbing surfaces (“ first bodies ”) and trapped in the contact zone. More recently, Y. Berthier proposed additional concepts for a systematic structuration of friction and wear analyses including scale factors and dynamic interactions. The speed accommodation occuring within the contact zone, is then described in terms of sites and modes which migrate and change during the friction process.