138 / 2025-05-26 18:39:22

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Verification on the Fretting Wear Behavior of Tungsten Carbide Coatings on Titanium Alloy

Finite Element Method (FEM),Fretting wear,Tungsten carbide coating,Fretting fatigue

Titanium alloy rotor shafts show good application prospects to satisfy the requirements of the high speed and heavy load helicopter. However, titanium alloy components are susceptible to fretting wear at contact interfaces under the combined effects of cyclic loading, micro-amplitude vibration, and extreme environmental conditions, which can result in connector loosening, fatigue crack initiation, and sealing failure, thereby posing serious threats to structural reliability and service safety. Surface coating technologies have been widely adopted to improve the fretting wear resistance of titanium alloys. However, studies on the service life of such coatings under fretting conditions remain scarce. In this study, fretting wear experiments were conducted using tungsten carbide (WC) coatings deposited by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying. The wear process was further simulated using finite element analysis (FEA) based on the Archard wear model. The influence of different parameters on the wear life of HVOF-sprayed WC coatings was systematically investigated. The proposed method is of potential applications for the intelligent operation and maintenance of helicopter rotor shaft.