Comparative investigation on the wear and friction behaviors of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites under dry sliding, oil lubrication and inert gas environment

CFRP (Carbon fibre reinforced polymer) composites are applicable for different engineering machinery to perform in different types of adjoining environments. Tribological properties of CFRP composites were examined experimentally and compared in three types of environmental conditions, (i) dry condition, (ii) oil-lubricated condition and (iii) inert gas (argon). A steel disc of En 31 with hardness of 60 HRC was used as the counterface. The experiment was done at different sliding speeds and different normal loads. It was observed from the results that sliding in an inert gas environment gives the highest value of friction coefficient followed by dry sliding and oillubricated sliding. SEM study of the wornout surfaces shows that the greater wear during inert gas environment results due to an easy detachment of fibres from matrix material. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.