Environmental effects on tribological behaviour of composite materials

Abstract

In recent years, developments in industrial applications has led to the demand for materials with better properties. Composite materials provide these requirements due to their high mechanical properties. Especially in the last half century, the production of composite materials used in industrial areas such as space, marine, aeronautics has increased to a great extent. This increase has led scientists to work on composite materials. One of these work areas is tribological behaviour. It is inevitable that the wear of the composite materials occurs due to surface roughness of the parts in contact with each other; therefore, they may not fulfill the functions expected from them. It is important to determine how tribological behaviour of composites used in almost all areas of the industry will be present in working conditions. In this study, wear and frictional characteristics of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites subjected to different environmental effects (soil, water, solar) were investigated under dry contact condition at different operating parameters. Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Technique (VDRIT) was used for the production of composite materials. Environmental effects, exposure times and applied loads on the friction coefficients and wear amounts were investigated. Wear tests were carried out under three different loads of 10 N, 20 N, 30 N, sliding distance of 2000 m and at a speed of 0.2 m/s. Wear rate in the experiments was calculated as weight loss. The tests were carried out on samples for each load and their average values ​​were taken. Similar to the results found in the literature, when carbon fiber reinforced composite materials were exposed to different environmental effects, the friction coefficients decreased and the wear rate increased. The use of information and data obtained with this study will guide material selection of machine tools manufactured from composite materials in different environmental conditions.

Keywords

• Carbon Fiber,Environmental Effects,Polymer Composite,Tribology

References

1. 1. Nair, F., Karamiş, M.B., ve Taşdemirci, A., Endüstriyel Uygulamalarda Borlanmış Çeliklerin Aşınma Davranışının İncelenmesi. 8. Denizli Malzeme Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı, 2000. p. 334-343.
2. 2. Yildizli, K., Borlamanın Çeliklerde Eroziv Aşınma Davranışına Olan Etkilerinin Deneysel Olarak İncelenmesi. Erciyes Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Makine Mühendisliği Anabilim Dalı, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Kayseri, 2002. p. 8-154.
3. 3. Demirci, A.H., Ötektoidaltı Alaşımsız Çeliklerin Isıl İşlemlere Bağlı Olarak Aşınma Davranışlarının Belirlenmesi ve Optimizasyonu. E.Ü., Makina Fakültesi, Doçentlik Tezi, Kayseri, 1982. p.8-44.
4. 4. Gay D., Hoa, S.V.,Tsai S.W., Composite Materials Design and Applications. CRC Pres. USA, 2003.
5. 5. Suresha, B., Chandramohan, G., Samaptkumaran, P., and Seetharamu, S., and Vynatheya, S., Friction and Wear Characteristics of Carbon-epoxy and glass-epoxy Woven Roving Fiber Composites. Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites, 2006. 25(7): p. 771-782.
6. 6. Wang, H., Wang, R., Wang, C., Li, M., & Zhu, Y., Influence of fiber orientation on the tribological properties of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites corroded by 10 wt% sulfuric acid solution. Journal of Materials Research, 2017. 32(4), p. 801-809.
7. 7. Suresha, B., Chandramoha, N.G., Samaptkumara, P., and Seetharamu, S., Three-body Abrasive Wear Behaviour of Carbon and Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites. Material Science and Engineering A, 2007. 443(1-2): p. 285-291.
8. 8. Wu, J., Li, J., Zhang, L., Qian, Z., Effects of environment on dry sliding wear behavior of silver–copper based composites containing tungsten disulfide. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2017. 27(10): p. 2202-2213.

9. 9. Sumer, M., Unal, H., and Mimaroglu, A., Evaluation of Tribological Behaviour of PEEK Composite Under Dry Sliding and Water lubricated Conditions. Wear, 2008. 265(7-8): p. 1061-1065.
10. 10. Larsen, T.Ø., Andersen, T.L., Thorning, B. and Vigild M.E., The Effect of Particle Addition and Fibrous Reinforcement on Epoxy-Matrix Composite for Severe Sliding Conditions. Wear, 2008. 264(9-10): p. 857-868.
11. 11. Khun, N.W., Zhang, H., Lim, L.H., Yue, C.Y., Hu, X., Yang, J., Tribological properties of short carbon fibers reinforced epoxy composites. Friction, 2014. 2(3): p. 226-239.
12. 12. Özay, Ç. ve Hasçalık, A,. T/M Yöntemi ile Üretilen Cu-C-Al2sio5 Kompozitinin Abrasiv Aşınma Dayanımı. DPÜ Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü Dergisi, 2004. 6: p. 175-184.
13. 13. Kishore, Sampathkumaran P., Seetharamu S., Murali A., and Kumar R.K. On the SEM Features of Glass-Epoxy Composite System Subjected to Dry Sliding Wear. Wear, 2001. 247(2): p. 208-213.
14. 14. Sureshkumar, P., Moorthi, R., Narayanan, B., Experimental Investigation of Friction and Wear Properties for Glass/Carbon Hybrid Fiber Reinforced with Epoxy Resin. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 2016. 9(42): p. 1-5.
15. 15. Chen, B., Li, X., Yang, J., Huang, H., Peng, W., Li, C., Zhang. Z., Enhancement of the tribological properties of carbon fiber/epoxy composite by grafting carbon nanotubes onto fibers. RSC Advances, 2016. 6: p. 49387–49394.
16. 16. Srivastava, V.K., Pathak, J.P. and Tahzibi, K., Wear and Friction Characteristics of Mica-Filled Fibre-Reinforced Epoxy Resin Composites. Wear, 1992. 152(2): p. 343-350.
17. 17. Tiwari, S., Bijwe, J., Various ways to strengthen the fiber–matrix interface for enhanced composite performance. Surface and Interface Analysis, 2013. 45, p. 1838–1848.
18. 18. Srivastava, V.K., Effect of CNTs on the Wear and Friction Performance of Carbon Fibre Woven Fabric Reinforced Epoxy Resin Composites. International Journal of Composite Materials, 2016. 6(4): p. 95-99.