Fretting

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Fretting refers to wear and sometimes corrosion damage of loaded surfaces in contact while they encounter small oscillatory movements tangential to the surface. Fretting is caused by adhesion of contact surface asperities, which are subsequently broken again by the small movement. This breaking causes wear debris to be formed.

If the debris and/or surface subsequently undergo chemical reaction, i.e., mainly oxidation, the mechanism is termed fretting corrosion. Fretting degrades the surface, leading to increased surface roughness and micropits, which reduces the fatigue strength of the components. The amplitude of the relative sliding motion is often in the order of micrometers to millimeters, but can be as low as 3 nanometers.^[1]

Typically fretting is encountered in shrink fits, bearing seats, bolted parts, splines, and dovetail connections.