Abstract
The friction and wear behaviors of ceramics against steels with lubricants were investigated and compared with those observed in air. Lubrications wbre done by a water and a commercial engine oil as received. The investigated ceramics were $Al_{2}O_{3}$, SiC, and $Si_{3}N_{4}$. Steels with 0.2 wt.% C were heat treated to obtain tempered structure. A cylinder-on-plate tribometer with rotated sliding motion was used to carry out the experiments. In the experiments reported here, the ranges of different testing speeds and loads were used. It was found that the friction and wear characteristics of tested pairs were significantly influenced by environments. In water and oil environments the wear of ceramics was reduced from 10$^{-6}$ g/s down to 10$^{-8}$ g/s in dry sliding at the same values of the frictional power which are the products of the friction coefficient, the load and the sliding speed. SiC showed excellent wear resistant behavior in water sliding, which was the lowest among tested ceramics, but it was, very poor in oils. In case of $Si_{3}N_{4}$, the wear rates were very low under oil environment, but the highest in water. The wear rates of $Al_{2}O_{3}$ were very low in both lubricating conditions at low values of the frictional power, but high at high values of the frictional power.
