ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a powerful new tool in particle morphology and its application to three-body abrasion tests. It presents the effects of size and shape of abrasive particles on metal surfaces. The lack of a quantitative scale for shape has precluded correlating wear rate to particle shape. J. K. Beddow and A. F. Vetter have developed a set of morphological parameters which have been applied to the analysis of the shape of abrasive particles. The abrasive particle may be introduced from the environment, it may be introduced in the fuel or the lubricant used, or it may be a particle earlier eroded from the system and carried to the site by the lubricant. The size, shape, and hardness of the abrasive particles are important and size and shape may change during the passage of the abrasive particle across the specimen surface. The propriety of using the same abrasive in more than one experiment has been debated.
