Tribological transitions during sliding of zirconia against alumina and ZTA in water

Water-lubricated ceramic bearings are currently being used in engineering applications like water pumps, air compressors and marine systems, due to their higher efficiency, reduced environmental impact and simpler constructive designs. In search of low-cost and high-performance tribosystems, bearings made of dissimilar ceramics are not frequently studied, but have potential to show good tribological compatibility. In this study, tribological behavior of two dissimilar ceramic pairs, ZrO2-Al2O3 and ZrO2-ZTA (10vol% ZrO2), was investigated. Water-lubricated ball-on-disc tests under loads ranging from 6.0 to 24.6 N and sliding speeds from 0.1 to 2.0m/s were performed. Worn surfaces were characterized by optical microscopy, SEM and contact-type profilometry. Thermal (Sc,t) and mechanical (Sc,m) severity of contact models explained the mild to severe wear transition as function of tribosystem's variables such as load, speed, distance, materials’ properties, contact geometry and environment. During mild wear regime, wear rates were smaller than 10⁻⁷ mm³/Nm, friction coefficients remained low (0.1