Friction and Wear Modelling in Fiber-Reinforced Composites

This work presents new contact constitutive laws for friction and wear modelling in fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). These laws are incorporated to a numerical methodology which allows us to solve the contact problem taking into account the anisotropic tribological properties on the interfaces. This formulation uses the Boundary Element Method for computing the elastic influence coefficients. Furthermore, the formulation considers micromechanical models for FRP that also makes it possible to take into account the fiber orientation relative to the sliding direction, the fiber volume fraction, the aspect ratio of fibers, or the fiber arrangement. The proposed contact and wear laws, as well as the numerical methodology, are applied to compute. and study wear in a carbon FRP. In these studies, it can be observed how the fiber orientation, micromechanics, or sliding orientation affect the normal and tangential contact compliance, as well as the contact traction distribution and wear evolution.