A Review on the Relationships Between Acoustic Emission, Friction and Wear in Mechanical Systems

Abstract Acoustic emission (AE) techniques play a key role in machine condition monitoring and wear/fault diagnosis. Understanding the impact of friction and wear on the generation of AE signals is essential to building a reliable wear monitoring system. However, existing papers focus on only one or two factors in specific contact conditions. This paper aims at surveying studies related to both theoretical models and experimental investigations to produce a comprehensive picture of the relationship between tribological parameters (e.g., surface roughness, oil film thickness, and friction coefficient), operating parameters (e.g., sliding velocity and load), and AE signal characteristics (e.g., amplitude/energy, frequency, and event count). This result will provide guidance for the development of AE-based condition monitoring approaches and in particular for the establishment of AE-based wear assessment techniques.