WEAR RATE BEHAVIOR OF CARBON/EPOXY COMPOSITE MATERIALS AT DIFFERENT WORKING CONDITIONS

Abstract

ABSTRACTA Pin -on- Disc wear testing rig of variable sliding speed with varying loadand sliding time has been used in this research to measure the wear rate of thecarbon/epoxy composite specimens at dry and wet working conditions.In this research the composite specimens made from the epoxy used as amatrix 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 innonlinear relationship with increase the applied load, sliding speed and sliding timeand decrease in nonlinear relationship with increase the volume fraction of carbonfiber.The results also show that the wear rate for the epoxy reinforced by carbonfibers for dry working conditions was higher than the wear rate for wet workingconditions. The maximum percentage reduction in wear rate was 30% for wetworking conditions and 18.5 % for dry working conditions at 9 % Vol. of carbonfibers when compared with the neat epoxy.