Design and development of a novel electrochemical abrasion-corrosion tester

Abstract Abrasive particle wear in corrosive environments is very common in offshore industry, e.g., dredging. The synergy or mutual effects between the abrasive and corrosive wear on material degradation cannot be quantified with standard tribological test equipment. A novel test rig has been developed, which couples pin abrasion test set-up (ASTM G132) along with three-electrode electrochemical system that allows to quantify experimentally the synergy between two-body multiple asperity abrasion and corrosion of metallic materials. The present article explains in detail the design and construction of this novel tribocorrosion test rig and discusses the results of investigation on an abrasion resistant martensitic steel in the presence and absence of corrosive medium resulting in higher wear in the latter condition.