• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.496-504
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• 2006

Wear of engine valves and seat inserts is a major factor affecting engine performance. In order to improve quality and life of valve assemblies, wear mechanism and 3-D surface topography should be analyzed according to operating conditions of the engine. After developing an engine simulator that generates valve speed up to 90Hz and temperature up to $900^{\circ}C$ as well as controls test load, wear experiments have been conducted for two different engine speeds as 10Hz and 25Hz. In order to observe the wear characteristics and monitor surface conditions of the valve assemblies, a cost-effective 3-D wear analysis system based on the shape from focus(SFF) and machine vision has been fabricated in this paper. 3-D surface topography of the valve assemblies has been analyzed to understand the wear behavior according to operating conditions of the engine. Consequently, wear volume of the valve assemblies is quantized by using the developed 3-D wear analysis system.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2016

The wear characteristics of metal ball and seat in a metal-seated ball valve significantly affect the performances such as leakage and valve torque. In this work, the wear characteristics of metal ball and seat are experimentally investigated. A stainless steel ball and seat with a high corrosion-resistant coating are prepared and a component level test was performed. The hardness and surface roughness of specimens cut from the metal ball and seat are measured before and after the test using a micro-Vickers hardness tester and confocal microscopy, respectively. In order to assess the wear characteristics, the surfaces of the specimens are carefully examined after the test. The confocal microscope data show that the surface roughness values of both the ball and seat increase by a factor of 3-4, which may lead to an increase in valve torque. However, the wear of the seat is found to be more significant than that of the ball. In addition, a comparison of the surfaces of the ball and seat before and after testing revealed that adhesive and abrasive wear are the major wear mechanisms. The results of this study may aid in the design of metal-seated ball valves from the tribological point of view.