ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the problem area of accelerated wear testing of mechanical components. Special challenges are component complexity and the possible transition from mild to severe wear, if a test is accelerated too severely. A scheme for 'mechanical evaluation' as a part of the test planning is suggested, and testing strategy based on available time and resources is discussed.
Oil hydraulic gear pumps have been tested in a case study. When reducing the oil viscosity step-wise to accelerate the tests, a temporary efficiency reduction often occurred, followed by a new running-in. No pumps failed within 2000-3000 hours of tests. In short-term experiments the instantaneous wear particle generation was studied using an on-line particle counter.
