Study of Wear Mechanism of Materials by SAM

Scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) is effective in acquiring the information about subsurface of samples nondestructively. Due to its pronounced nondestruction and subsurface detecting capability,SAM has been finding a wide range of application in materials science and biology. In order to enlarge the application spectrum of SAM, research of wear of materials by SAM has been conducted. A reflection type SAM with a frequency of 150 MHz was used to observe the wear process of atmospherically plasma sprayed Al 2O 3 40%ZrO 2 ceramic coatings and compare the wear mechanisms of ceramic coatings (Cr 2O 3, ZrO 2 8%Y 2O 3) and metal alloy (N + implanted Cr Mo V steel), which are typical brittle material and plastic material, respectively. These results could be helpful to understand the wear mechanisms of materials. The SAM results have been testified by SEM observation.