Equipment for the Study of Wear Under Conditions of Oscillatory Relative Motion in Liquid Sodium

Equipment for the study of wear in liquid sodium under conditions of oscillatory relative motion of small amplitude (''fretting'') is described in detail. With this equipment experiments can be performed at temperatures up to 750°C in sodium with controlled oxygen content. The following vibration patterns may be applied: (i) torsional vibration in the plane of contact of two test specimens; (ii) oscillatory motion normal to the plane of contact; (iii) any combination of (i) and (ii). With this equipment fretting experiments are performed with steel X 8 Cr Ni Mo V Nb 16 13, Inconel 625 and the vanadium alloys V-20 Ti and V-5 Ti-20 Nb, at different levels of temperature and oxygen content. (author)