The work examines the wear behaviour of α-aluminium oxide by combining thermodynamic modelling with advanced wear testing as well as analytical methods to get a better understanding of this structural ceramic material wear behavior and its possible use in high temperature steam environment.
Selfmated alpha-alumina sliding couples have been investigated under oscillating sliding at 100 N load in different humidity conditions in air as in hot steam up to temperatures of 300°C and ambient pressures up to 4 bar.