X-Ray Emission during Rubbing of Metals

Abstract

A good deal of work carried out in recent past has shown that the triboelectromagnetic radiation produced during peeling of a scotch tape, breaking rock sugar with a hammer, peeling of mica sheets etc. may extend even to X-ray energies. Work on peeling of scotch tape has been particularly successful in demonstrating visible X-ray emission in modest vacuum. The present work looks at the possibility of X-ray emission during rubbing of metals and other selected material pairs in air. Experimental results indicate that X-ray emission indeed occurs during rubbing of even common engineering metals and also other selected material pairs under certain restricted rubbing configurations. It was observed that X-rays could be detected when one of the rubbing surfaces was a thin metal sheet. It was also observed that with the increase in sliding speed X-ray emission increased whereas the increase in load did not have much influence on the emission. Vibration at the contact was found to be an important influential parameter. With the increasing vibration X-ray emission increased. This X-ray emission at the rubbing contact between common engineering materials, if exploited properly, can be of significant use in in-situ monitoring of tribological processes.

Keywords

• X-ray Emission
• Triboluminescence
• Triboelectricity
• Stick-Slip motion