Lubrication of ceramics in ring/cylinder applications

In support of efforts to apply ceramics to advanced heat engines, a study was performed of the wear mechanisms of ceramics at the ring/cylinder interface. A laboratory apparatus was constructed to reproduce most of the conditions of an actual engine but used easily prepared ring and cylinder specimens to facilitate their fabrication. Plasma-sprayed coatings of Cr2O3 and hypersonic flame-sprayed coatings of cobalt-bonded WC performed particularly well as ring coatings. Similar performance was obtained with these coatings operating against SiC, Si3N4, SiC whisker-reinforced Al2O3 and Cr2O2 coatings. The study demonstrated the critical need for lubrication and evaluated the performance of two available lubricants