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T. Wopelka, M. Jech, C. Lenauer, F. Novotny-Farkas, F. Franek:
"Comparison of wear measurements of component and engine bench tests using radioactive isotopes";
Talk: 51. Tribologie-Fachtagung, Göttingen, D; 09-27-2010 - 09-29-2010; in: "Reibung, Schmierung und Verschleiß", Gesellschaft für Tribologie e.V., (2010), ISBN: 978-3-00-032180-1.

One of the main challenges in the research field of tribology is the relation between real applications and model components tests. The present work focuses especially on the comparison of the wear behaviour of a piston ring in an engine bench test and in model tribometer tests. The engine bench test is performed with a modern 2.0 litre passenger-car engine. The model/component tests are carried out on a model tribometer (SRV®) with piston ring and cylinder liner components in reciprocating movement. The loading conditions (such as contact pressure) in the model tests are adjusted to simulate tribological conditions corresponding to those in the real system. These loading conditions are obtained by computer based modelling of the loading parameters for real applications. In both test setups wear measurement is carried out using radioactive isotopes (nVCT® method), with the piston ring specimens being activated by thin layer activation (TLA). The nVCT® measuring system is integrated in the
oil circuit of the model and the engine test in order to detect the volume of wear particles from the piston ring insitu and ontinuously. The wear behaviour of piston rings can be characterised as running-in and steady-state wear phases. The analysis of the steady state wear is used to investigate the wear performance in the model and
the engine bench tests in order to improve the correlation between these testing environments.

Project Head Friedrich Franek:
Tribologie