An integrated hard- and soft-ware triboelectrochemical test rig for tribocorrosion experiments

Tribocorrosion is a degradation mechanism resulting from the interaction of mechanical (wear) and chemical (corrosion) phenomena. This interaction leads to surface damage that does not correspond to the simple sum of wear and corrosion taken separately. Testing tribocorrosion of material pairings thus requires the capability not only to control the mechanical and chemical test parameters but also to identify the relative contribution of corrosion and wear in the overall material degradation. This paper describes a novel laboratory tribocorrosion test set-up combining in one experiment the control of mechanical input (load, velocity, and frequency) and output (friction and wear) parameters as well as the control of corrosion phenomena through a series of dedicated electrochemical methods (open circuit, potentiostatic and potentiodynamic measurements). The possibilities offered by this set-up are illustrated by selected case studies.