Reliability assessment of PEEK/17-4PH stainless steel tribopair under seawater lubrication

The high reliability and extended life of seawater hydraulic components depends on the tribological properties of the key tribopairs. The main reason that restricts their life is the wear of the tribopairs in relative motion. Therefore, the performance degradation of the tribopair should be investigated. Due to the limitation of the test sample size and test time, a large number of tests cannot be performed in a short period of time. Therefore, with the development of the sensor and monitoring technologies, the Accelerated Degradation Testing (ADT) has become an accelerated test method that can efficiently select and analyze the reliability of tribopairs. In this paper, the friction and wear characteristics of polyether ether ketone (PEEK)/17-4PH stainless steel are investigated, and the acceleration stress related to its performance is analyzed. Taking into account the random characteristics of the degradation process, an ADT model based on the Wiener stochastic process is constructed, while using the MLE solver. Finally, the model is estimated and verified using PEEK/17-4PH stainless steel experimental data. The results show that the proposed model helps the reliable assessment and further research of tribopair material.