The wear phenomenon plays a fundamental role in excavation work, as it directly affects times and costs. While prediction models are available in the literature for rock applications, a standardized procedure for predicting wear is not yet available for soils. In this work, the Soil Abrasion Test Apparatus (SATA) is used to study the wear dependence from the moisture content. 6 different types of soils were tested by varying the moisture content and results were obtained in terms of weight loss and average torque. Considerations are presented on the potential dependence of particle size distribution, grain shape and quartz content on wear.

Keywords: wear, Soil Abrasion Test Apparatus, moisture content, grain size distribution, quartz content.