Tribocorrosion

Both these phenomena, as well as fretting corrosion (which results from small amplitude oscillations between contacting surfaces) fall into the broader category of tribocorrosion.

It reduces the life-time of pipes, valves and pumps, of waste incinerators, of mining equipment or of medical implants, and it can affect the safety of nuclear reactors or of transport systems.

On the other hand, tribocorrosion phenomena can also be applied to good use, for example in the chemical-mechanical planarization of wafers in the electronics industry [4] or in metal grinding and cutting in presence of aqueous emulsions.

Biotribocorrosion covers the science of surface transformations resulting from the interactions of mechanical loading and chemical/electrochemical reactions that occur between elements of a tribological system exposed to biological environments.

It is important to understand material degradation processes for joint implants to achieve longer service life and better safety issues for such devices.

The vast majority of corrosion resistant metals and alloys used in engineering (stainless steels, titanium, aluminium etc.)

However, when a metal surface is subjected to severe rubbing or to a stream of impacting particles the passive film damage can become continuous and extensive.