Abstract
Sliding wear tests have been carried out in room temperature air and water in order to compare the wear resistance of Zr-xNb-xSn alloys of various alloying elements (Nb and Sn). The main focus was to quantitatively compare the wear properties of the recently developed Zr-xNb-xSn alloys with the commercial ones using the evaluation parameters of the wear resistance with the consideration of the worn area. As a result, the recently developed alloys had a similar wear resistance compared with the commercial ones. The dominant factor governing the wear resistance was the protruded volume of the wear debris that was formed on the worn area in the air condition, but the accommodation of the plastic deformation on the contact area in water. In addition, the worn area size appeared to be very different depending on the tested alloys. To evaluate the wear resistance of each test specimen, the ratio of the wear volume or the protruded volume to the worn area ($D_e$ or $D_p$) is investigated and proposed as the evaluation parameters of the wear resistance.