The friction behaviour of iron and Fe-Cr alloys in unidirectional and reciprocating sliding motions at 293 K has been examined in oxygen of controlled partial pressure. During sliding, a progressive decrease in coefficient of friction accompanies the development of compacted oxide films on the metal surfaces, eventually resulting in a steady value of about 0.6 when almost complete oxide coverage is attained. This is achieved more rapidly at higher oxygen partial pressures. A model to account for the experimental observations is proposed, based on the growth of oxide on the clean metal surfaces and metal wear particles between each wear traversal and the removal of that oxide during the subsequent traversal. The oxidized debris is fragmented further and compacted on to the metal surfaces to form a layer of nominally constant thickness, the area of which increases progressively with the number of sliding traversals. The model relates the coefficient of friction to the area of compacted oxide in terms of several interfacial metal, oxide and metal-oxide parameters. The importance of some of these parameters on the frictional behaviour is discussed in light of the experimental observations.
