The purpose of this investigation is to study the tribological behavior of polymers in sliding oscillatory motions. This research has three objectives: (1) to determine the temperature distribution at the contact, both analytically and experimentally; (2) to characterize the structure of surface layers formed at the contact; (3) to develop a model for the tribological behavior of polymer/metal contacts under socillating motion. The resulting model would be semi-quantitative in nature and would be useful for design and life prediction of such bearing systems.
