Reciprocating Friction Test Simulator
A virtual reciprocating sliding tribometer: explore how test conditions, drive kinematics, friction evolution, contact stiffness, wear and sensor noise shape the friction loops you measure.
What the app does
Reciprocating sliding tests (ball-on-flat, as in SRV-type and similar tribometers) are among the most common friction and wear tests, yet the same test can return very different coefficients of friction depending on how the friction loop is recorded and evaluated. The Reciprocating Sliding Tribometer Simulator generates realistic synthetic test signals from physical models, so you can see how each test parameter and each signal artefact shapes the data.
Model blocks
- Test conditions — frequency, stroke, normal force; drive kinematics (crank-slider, sinusoidal or trapezoidal) with crank radius and rod length; data-acquisition sampling rate.
- CoF evolution — optional running-in, steady state, and separate forward and backward friction levels.
- Friction loop — contact stiffness, slip distance, acceleration and deceleration effects, static-to-kinetic friction ratios at stroke reversal.
- Wear model — ball radius, elastic properties and wear coefficients of ball and flat.
- Noise — drift, sensor range, force and displacement noise, tribological noise and its frequency content.
Outputs
- Tangential force against time.
- Friction loops (force against position) and how they evolve over the test.
- Coefficient of friction evolution in forward and backward strokes.
- Cumulative dissipated energy.
- Wear scar depth on the flat and contact area on the ball as the test proceeds.
The default set-up is a 10 Hz, 1.5 mm stroke test at 500 N with a 12.7 mm ball, crank-slider drive and 10 kHz sampling.
Why it matters
Different loop-evaluation methods (peak, mean, energy-based) can give very different friction coefficients on the same data. Synthetic loops with known ground truth make it possible to test evaluation methods, train new staff and design better test plans. The simulator supports our Tribology Challenge, an inter-laboratory initiative to harmonise how reciprocating friction tests are evaluated.
How to access the app
The Reciprocating Friction Test Simulator runs in your web browser on Tribology Universe, the app platform of i-TRIBOMAT: The European Tribology Centre. Use is free; you only need a Tribology Universe account, which takes a minute to create.
Need more than the free app?
Our Modelling & Simulation team builds custom models for your geometry, materials and lubricants, and can validate them against tests on more than 130 tribometers across our partner laboratories. Contact us or write to office@i-tribomat.eu.
References
- J. F. Archard, Contact and rubbing of flat surfaces, Journal of Applied Physics 24 (1953) 981–988
- P. J. Blau, On the nature of running-in, Tribology International 38 (2005) 1007–1012
- F.-C. Hsia, F. M. Elam, D. Bonn, B. Weber, S. E. Franklin, Wear particle dynamics drive the difference between repeated and non-repeated reciprocated sliding, Tribology International (2020) 105983
- ASTM G133, Standard Test Method for Linearly Reciprocating Ball-on-Flat Sliding Wear
- How shall we harmonize reciprocating friction tests?, TriboNet webinar, 2024