Influence of content of carbon fabric on the low amplitude oscillating wear performance of polyetherimide composites

Abstract

Tribo-potential of bi-directionally (BD) reinforced polymer composites is not yet adequately explored especially in low amplitude oscillating wear (LAOW)/fretting wear mode. Hence five composites of Polyetherimide (PEI) containing carbon fabric (plain weave) in the range 40-85 by vol% were developed by impregnation technique followed by compression molding. These composites along with unfilled PEI were evaluated for their LAOW performance on SRV Optimol tester under different loads using ball-on-plate configuration. The performance was compared with that of composite evaluated in earlier work but developed with different processing technique (hand lay up). With increase in load, specific wear rates of all the composites increased while friction coefficient (l) decreased. It was concluded that carbon fabric inclusion in all amounts proved significantly beneficial for improving friction and wear performance and limiting load of PEI. Very high and very low amount of CF (85 and 40 vol%) proved least beneficial from strength and tribo-performance point of view. Composites with moderate amount of CF (65 and 55 vol%) proved most promising with almost similar potential in reducing l and wear rate of PEI. Overall CF in the range of 55-65 vol% appeared to be the optimum range for tailoring the strength properties along with tribo-performance in fretting wear mode. The impregnation technique proved significantly better than the hand lay up technique for enhancement in strength and triboperformance. SEM studies on worn surface proved helpful in understanding wear mechanisms.

Optimization of material parameters for development of polyetherimide composites

“…Amount of CF was determined by solvent extraction method [3,4]. Mechanical properties as per ASTM D638 were performed on Zwick/Roell Z250 UTM and are presented in Table 3.…”

“…), amount, extent of fiber-matrix adhesion, processing techniques, parameters, etc. Compared to the vast amount of literature on the influence of these parameters on general mechanical properties, a little is reported in case of tribological properties [2,3]. This is very critical in case of influence of these properties especially of weave and fiber-matrix interface on low amplitude oscillating wear (LAOW) wear mode.…”

Optimization of weave of carbon fabric for best combination of strength and tribo-performance of polyetherimide composites in adhesive wear mode

“…Most of these studies are focused on the composites based on thermoset resins and pertain to the influence of different fabrics such as CF, GF or AF on wear performance. Papers published on the tribo-composites based on thermoplastic polymers such as Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) reinforced with CF, GF and AF in adhesive [6,13,14], abrasive and fretting-fatigue wear modes on the other hand are very few [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…High performance thermoplastics such as PEEK, polyethersulphone (PES), polyetherimide Table 1a Characteristic properties of various weaves of fabric [5] Property P (plain) T (twill) S (satin) [7][8][9][10][11]. However, tribological evaluation in adhesive wear mode assumes significance in view of applications such as bearings, slides, bushes, etc.…”

Carbon fabric reinforced polyetherimide composites: Optimization of fabric content for best combination of strength and adhesive wear performance

“…Hence, in order to explore the potential of such composites, a series of CF-PEI composites were developed in the laboratory with varying contents of CF, weave and processing techniques. These composites were evaluated for strength and tribo-performance in various wear modes such as fretting [16,17], abrasive [18,19], erosive [20,21] and adhesive [22]. However, the influence of contents of CF on triboperformance in adhesive wear was not reported which forms the objective of this paper.…”