Abstract
SYNOPSIS A new theory is developed in an attempt to explain the scuffing failure of circumferentially ground discs. The characteristics of the surfaces of a particular pair of such discs just before scuffing took place have been analysed in detail. The roughness of the surfaces has been taken into account in the treatment both of the hydrodynamics and of the contact mechanics of the system. The disc bulk temperature at which high hydrodynamic pressures just fail to be generated shows a reasonable agreement with the temperature observed just before scuffing. The implications for the mechanism of scuffing are discussed.

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