Test and Identification Analysis of Wear Response Signal of Contact Interface of Rotary Seal

The wear state of mechanical seal friction pair directly determines the reliability of mechanical seal. In this paper, the mapping mechanism between contact wear response and acoustic emission (AE) signals of friction pair is indicatively proposed, and the relationship between wear frequency and time-averaged wear is explored. First of all, AE sensors were arranged on the Multi-function tribometer Rtec MFT-5000, static and dynamic friction tests were carried out on the contact form of M106K-WC (graphite-cemented carbide) and WC–WC, the AE signals are collected, and the wear amounts of the two groups of friction pairs were measured; then, the friction and wear signals are separated and reprocessed by time–frequency analysis. The results show that the static wear response frequency (SWRF) of M106K-WC is about 70 ± 10 kHz, the SWRF of WC–WC is about 90 ± 10 kHz, and the dynamic wear response frequency (DWRF) of WC–WC is about 175 ± 10 kHz; the root mean square (RMS) values of DWRF amplitudes is positively correlated with the wear amounts. According to the research results, it is inferred that there is a difference between the signal frequency in the quasi-static wear process and the dynamic wear process, there is a great correlation between the wear frequency and the material pair, and the working condition has little influence on the wear frequency. The mapping relationship between AE signal and time-averaged wear of friction pair is revealed.