Fretting Wear and Fatigue Properties of Epoxy Resin Filled with Crushed Silica Particles

Abstract

Fretting wear and fatigue properties of an epoxy resin filled with crushed silica particles were examined under three levels of contact pressure. The three dimensional elastic-contact stress analysis was carried out for predicting the fretting fatigue limits. The fretting wear morphology was three-body abrasive wear accelerated by the mixed wear cluster of transferred metal particles with the silica particles isolated from the matrix surface. The friction coefficient between the specimen and the pad was 0.6-0.65. However it was reduced to 0.1 by interposing a PTFE film between the rubbing surfaces. At the contact pressure of 20 MPa, the fretting fatigue reduction factor at fatigue limit was 3.0, however by inserting the PTFE film the fretting fatigue strength was extremely improved up to the unfretted fatigue level. The fretting fatigue limits predicted by a surface stress criteria approach possessed relatively large errors especially at high contact pressures, but the prediction values by a simplified fracture mechanics approach successfully maintained reasonable and practical accuracy over the wide range of contact pressure.