No abstract

The aim of this work is to determine the tribological behaviour of various materials on an ice surface. For preliminary investigations a pin-on-disc tribometer was placed into a cooling chamber. The dependence of the coefficient of friction on the normal force, the ice temperature, the sliding velocity and the heat conductivity of the sample pin as well as the surface topography were measured. It was difficult to obtain clear results, because of the manual preparation method of the ice surface. There was no electronical collection of the data. As this experimental set-up presents these disadvantages, a new low-temperature tribometer was developed. It is a computer aided low-temperature tribometer with a fixed ice disk and a rotary measuring system including the specimen. The spin can be moved on a spiral path, thus guaranteeing a new ice surface for measurement. A minimum temperature of -30 C, a normal force up to 10 N and a maximum sliding velocity of 9,4 m/s can be achieved. The important influence of a rough ice surface will be minimized by applying a careful mechanical preparation method.Some first measuring results obtained in friction-on-ice tests using the novel tribometer will be presented.