A model for unlubricated wear of ceramic materials will be developed and validated. Model development will be based on material loss due to brittle cracking. The amount of cracking will, in turn, will be modeled based on the effects of thermal and elastic contact and frictional stresses on the nucleation and propagation of subsurface cracks at triple point grain boundaries. The solid mechanics analyses will be supported by scaled potoelastic contact experiments. The wear model will be validated using existing wear data for typical ceramic materials.
