Wear rate behavior of carbon epoxy composite materials at different working conditions

Abstract EN

A Pin -on- Disc wear testing rig of variable sliding speed with varying load and sliding time has been used in this research to measure the wear rate of the carbon/epoxy composite specimens at dry and wet working conditions.

In this research the composite specimens made from the epoxy used as a matrix and the carbon fiber with length ≤ 3mm and volume fraction (3, 6 & 9 vol.

%) as reinforcement.

The results show that the wear rate of composite specimens increase in nonlinear relationship with increase the applied load, sliding speed and sliding time and decrease in nonlinear relationship with increase the volume fraction of carbon fiber.

The results also show that the wear rate for the epoxy reinforced by carbon fibers for dry working conditions was higher than the wear rate for wet working conditions.

The maximum percentage reduction in wear rate was 30% for wet working conditions and 18.5 % for dry working conditions at 9 % Vol.

of carbon fibers when compared with the neat epoxy.