Wear particles image analysis

Spelling TP, Tucker J, Reintjes J, Shultz A, Lu C and Roylance BJ, Wear Particle Imaging and Analysis - a contribution towards monitoring the health of military ships and aircraft. International Conference on Condition Monitoring, Swansea, 1999, pp 539-545. 

Slouf et al. [37] reported a novel automated quantitative analysis technique, SEMq, which was based on a light scattering theory. In this method automated image analysis of electron micrographs is used to determine the total amount of wear particles released into the tissues around total joint replacements. This technique was shown to provide rapid, reliable, and reproducible results, which indicated that the distribution of wear particles around TJRs is nonhomogeneous [37]. However, this technique does not calculate absolute numbers of wear particles but rather determines relative numbers of wear particles in one sample compared to another. The technique may also be sensitive to errors introduced by particle cliunping and protein contamination of filters used for SEM analysis. 

This paper describes morphological features of wear particles produced through different wear mechanisms occurring in misaligned dual-pin/disk experiments. Combination of these parameters obtained with image analysis enables identification of wear particles produced through different wear mechanisms. This is then applied to wear particles produced in a conventional ball-on-disk experiment. 

Figure 4.2 (a) TEM image recorded onto an anti-wear film particle and corresponding electron diffraction pattern, (b) X-ray emission spectrum (EDXS) analysis. The antiwear film is composed of iron and elements present in the ZDDP additive (O, P, S, Zn). (c) and (d) Fe and Zn radial distribution functions (RDFs) uncorrected from phase shift, extracted from EXAFS experiments on ZDDP antiwear film particles. The electron diffraction pattern and the presence of one major peak in each RDF corresponding to oxygen first-neighbours shell point out the amorphous structure of the antiwear film, (e) Schematic structure of the ZDDP tribo-film according to the multitechnique approaches [8]... 

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