Influence of Microroughness on the Frictional Behavior and Wear Response of Planar Saw-Cut Rock Surfaces
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20, Issue 8
Abstract
Saw-cut rock surfaces, classically utilized to estimate basic friction angle of discontinuities by means of tilt test and other procedures, may seem planar to the naked eye. Nevertheless, they actually present roughness at a micrometric scale. Aiming at characterizing some of these saw-cut rock surfaces and assessing the possible implications between their microscale topography and the resulting tribological behavior, the authors of this study resorted to the 3D focus-variation technique to analyze different surface-texture parameters. Tilt tests were carried out on specimens cut on three rock types, and the involved sliding surfaces were evaluated at a microscale for different testing stages (prior to any test and after two series of repeated tests). An apparently logical inverse correlation between repeated testing and friction angle has been observed, more marked for the smoother surfaces. Higher roughness at the scale of the analysis tends to produce lower friction-angle values, as otherwise observed for mismatched natural rock surfaces. In addition, saw-cut rock surfaces present systematically negative skewness and high values of kurtosis for their height distributions, indicating the occurrence of narrow and deep pits or valleys. Directional hybrid parameters and, in particular, the root mean square (RMS) of the gradient of the surface in the direction of sliding correlates rather well with the measured sliding angle. The authors concluded that the 3D focus-variation technique represents a powerful tool to assess surface-texture parameters of saw-cut rock surfaces, in addition to being useful for understanding some features of the tribological, or wear and frictional, behavior of these type of surfaces.
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Acknowledgments
Dr. Carmen Serra, Dr. Paula Barbazán, and Dr. Tatiana Padín from the Scientific and Technological Research Assistance Centre (CACTI) at the University of Vigo are kindly acknowledged for their inestimable help on performing 3D surface-topographic measurements and interpretation of results. The second and third authors acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Business for funding of the project “Deepening on the behaviour of rock masses: scale effects on the stress-strain response of fissured rock samples with particular emphasis on post-failure,” awarded under Contract Reference No. RTI2018-093563-B-I00, partially financed by means of ERDF funds from the EU.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- g
- gravitational acceleration;
- H
- rock specimen length;
- h
- rock specimen height;
- L
- rock block length;
- Sa
- mean roughness;
- Sdq
- root mean square of the surface gradient;
- Sdqx
- root mean square of the gradient in sliding direction (x);
- Sdqy
- root mean square of the gradient perpendicular to the sliding direction (y);
- Sdr
- ratio of the increment of the interfacial area;
- Sdrx
- ratio of the increment of the interfacial area in sliding direction (x);
- Sdry
- ratio of the increment of the interfacial area perpendicular to the sliding direction (y);
- Sku
- kurtosis;
- Sq
- root mean square roughness;
- Ssk
- skewness;
- w
- specimen width;
- β
- sliding (friction) angle obtained from tilt test;
- ϕb,g
- basic friction angle of granite;
- ϕb,l
- basic friction angle of limestone; and
- ϕb,q
- basic friction angle of quartzite.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20 • Issue 8 • August 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 6, 2019
Accepted: Feb 24, 2020
Published online: May 22, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 22, 2020
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