Quantitative Wear Models for Microscale Material Removal

Wear in microscale material removal is difficult to predict because material loss can proceed through several distinct pathways, including plastic deformation, adhesion, atom-by-atom attrition, tribochemical reactions, oxidation-assisted removal, and fracture. Since these mechanisms operate under different contact and environmental conditions, no single wear law is reliable across all cases. This review examines the main quantitative wear models used in microscale material removal, from classical Archard-type and Reye-type relations to atomistic Arrhenius-type descriptions and models developed for adhesive, tribochemical, oxidation-related, and fracture-dominated wear. Attention is given to the assumptions behind these models, the regimes in which they remain useful, and the conditions under which their predictions begin to fail. The discussion also considers how material properties, tool characteristics, operating conditions, and environmental factors act alone and in combination to influence wear behavior and the reliability of different models. Across the literature, a consistent conclusion is that model selection is most reliable when it is based on the active wear mechanism and the evolving contact state. On this basis, practical guidelines are outlined for different classes of contacts, and current limitations are discussed, including poor treatment of regime transitions, difficulty in parameter identification, and the gap between atomistic models and engineering use. Future progress will depend on multi-regime modeling, better treatment of coupled effects, and improved in situ characterization under realistic operating conditions.