Tribological behaviour of surface contact friction test with water lubrication at elevated temperatures.

This paper presents an experimental work on general tribological behaviour with water lubrication at elevated temperatures. A surface contact friction type with reciprocating movement is chosen to simulate the start-stop and accident working condition of mechanical seals in water pumps. From the results, when the heating temperature is above a critical value that is higher than saturation point, vaporization in friction gap firstly occurs near atmosphere side, and then expands into water side. Vaporization causes unstable friction behaviour and severe wear of the tribo-couple. Finally, potential applications of this friction test fore valuating the wear behaviour of seals at elevated temperatures are discussed.