Towards multiscale modeling of Abrasive wear

Friction & wear have been discussed for over 600 years now, starting with the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Yet, even to this day, this remains one of the unsolved problems. With increasing concern for environmental pollution, understanding wear through particulate formation becomes ever important.

Particulate emissions can be divided as PM10, PM2.5 based on particle diameter (i.e. ~10 & 2.5 microns). These particles can significantly affect human health as smaller particles are not filtered by the filters in our respiratory system. Environmental studies on PM2.5 particles done by the European Commission show these particles which were almost non-existant during 1997 is present in the atmosphere in large amounts today.

This work is motivated towards understanding wear as a multiscale-multiphysics approach. A 3D framework is developed to simulate crack propagation in filled elastomeric microstructure owing to contact loading to predict particle sizes emanating due to wear & to eventually predict wear trends in filled elastomeric compounds.