An experimental approach for investigating scuffing initiation due to overload cycles with twin-disc test device

This paper presents an investigation into the effect of unexpected overloading on scuffing initiation with a twin-disc test device. An existing twin-disc test device was modified to be suitable for applying overloading dynamically to the disc contact. Three test series including three pairs of discs in each series were subjected to combined normal force and rolling/sliding loading. First a base level for scuffing initiation was defined by increasing the normal load stepwise until failure, while keeping the rolling and sliding between the discs constant. In the subsequent test series, the overload cycles were applied at a significantly lower level in two different patterns leading to scuffing at both an earlier and later stage than was observed for the base level.