Dry Sliding Wear Behaviour of Carbon Fabric-Reinforced Epoxy Composite with and without Silicon Carbide

Abstract

Carbon fabric-reinforced epoxy composites with and without silicon carbide filler were prepared by hand lay-up technique followed by compression moulding. These composites were tested on a pin-on-disc wear tester. The dry sliding wear test conditions include different applied load and sliding velocity. In this study, friction and dry sliding wear behaviour of silicon carbide (SiC)-filled carbon fabric-reinforced epoxy (C-E) composites were investigated. The weight fraction of SiC filler was varied (0, 5 and 10 wt%) so as to obtain composite samples of three different compositions. Sliding wear experiments were conducted using a pin-on-disc wear tester. The tests were conducted at a fixed sliding distance by varying the applied load and sliding velocity. The results show that for increased load and sliding velocity, higher wear loss was recorded. Excellent wear characteristics were obtained with C-E containing SiC as filler. Especially, 10 wt% of SiC in C-E gave a low wear rate. Moreover, the results reveal that 5 and 10 wt% of SiC in C-E showed 21 and 35 percentage of increase, respectively, in the wear resistance as compared with unfilled C-E composite. The wear resistance of the C-E and SiC-filled C-E composites was found to be related to the stability of the transfer film on the counterface. Moreover, incorporation of SiC in C-E showed improved mechanical properties. The results have been supplemented with scanning electron micrographs to help understand the possible wear mechanisms.