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Study on the friction and wear behavior of basalt fabric composites lled
with graphite and nano-SiO2
Qi-hua Wang a, Xin-rui Zhang a,b,*, Xian-qiang Pei a
a
b
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 17 June 2009
Accepted 27 August 2009
Available online 31 August 2009
Keywords:
Fabric composite
Friction and wear
SEM
a b s t r a c t
To improve the friction and wear behavior of basalt fabric reinforced phenolic composites, single graphite
or nano-SiO2 and both of them were incorporated. The tribological properties of the resulting composites
under different sliding conditions were investigated systematically on a model ring-on-block test rig. The
friction and wear mechanisms of the composites were studied through analyzing the worn surfaces and
transfer lms by a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Experimental results showed that graphite (Gr)
was more benecial than nano-SiO2 in improving the tribological properties of basalt fabric composites
(BFC) when they were singly incorporated. It is well worth noting that the friction and wear behavior of
the lled composites was improved further when nano-SiO2 and graphite were added together, indicating that there was a synergistic effect between them. Tribological tests under different sliding conditions
revealed that the BFC/Gr/SiO2 composites seemed to be more suitable for tribological applications under
higher sliding speed and load.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Polymers and polymermatrix composites have been found
great potentials in industry as a class of important tribo-engineering materials [14]. Polymer composites containing different llers
and/or reinforcements are frequently used for these purposes.
Among the ingredients currently available for friction materials,
the polymermatrix and lled bers play a crucial role in determining the friction and wear performance of the materials [5,6].
Compared with short bers, fabrics have much higher structural
ordering and tightness, and have been found to be more preferential in improving the mechanical strength of polymer composites
in both longitudinal and transverse directions. Due to the excellent
performance of fabric reinforced polymer composites, such as low
density, high strength, high modulus, excellent chemical stability
and anti-wear ability, they have been considered as an advanced
bearing liner material for tribological applications in many hightech industries, such as aero-space, aviation, automobile, and so
forth [7,8]. Moreover, used as reinforcement, basalt ber has some
advantages over glass ber, carbon ber and asbestos ber, such as
absence of a carcinogenic effect, environmental cleanness, exibility, good temperature resistance and heating insulation property
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s3
2
2
B 4 pr 2
b
b
b
x
r 2 5 mm3 =N m
arcsin
L P 180
2r
2r
2
Table 1
The properties of the basalt fabric.
Basalt fabric
Plain
Type
End per inch (lament/10 mm)
Pick per inch (lament/10 mm)
Density (g/m2)
Thickness (mm)
264 Tex
4.9
4.9
492
0.27
Table 2
Chemical composition of the GCr15 steel ring.
Chemical composition (mass fraction, %)
C
Mn
Si
Cr
0.951.05
0.250.45
0.150.35
<0.025
<0.025
1.401.65
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7.7, 98.6 and 98.8%. Based on the above results, conclusions can
be made that the simultaneous addition of graphite and nanoSiO2 effectively improved the friction-reduction and anti-wear
abilities of BFC composites owing to the synergistic effects between them.
Variations of the friction and wear behavior of the lled and unlled basalt fabric composites with load are shown in Fig. 3. As is
seen obviously, the combination of graphite and nano-SiO2 was
the most effective in modifying the friction and wear behavior of
the BF composites under all the tested loads, although the tribological properties of the different composites varied with the loads in
different manner. The friction coefcient of the unlled basalt fabric composites increased with increasing load up to 300 N. With
the increase in load, more basalt bers dropped out from the phenolic matrix during the friction process, which led to a severe abrasive wear and resulted in a higher friction coefcient. When the
load was beyond this range, the friction coefcient decreased owing to the micro-melting and mechanical deterioration caused by
friction heat under a higher load. The wear rate of the unlled basalt fabric composites increased from 300 to 500 N. With the increase in load, the adhesion between the ber and matrix
deteriorated resulting from the increased ash temperature, which
rendered the pulverized basalt bers pulled out or peeled off easily
and the wear resistance of the composites decreased. It also can be
seen that the friction coefcient and wear rate of the nano-SiO2
lled basalt fabric composites rst decreased and then increased
when the load was larger than 400 N. In the case of graphite lled
Fig. 2. Variation of friction coefcient and wear rate with different basalt fabric composites: (a) friction coefcient and (b) wear rate.
Fig. 3. Effects of load on the friction coefcient and wear rate of different basalt fabric composites: (a) friction coefcient and (b) wear rate.
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Table 3
Effects of sliding speed on the friction coefcient and wear rate of BFC/Gr/SiO2.
x/106
Sliding conditions
(m/s)
200 N
0.431
0.862
0.17
0.08
1.6
0.55
400 N
0.431
0.862
0.08
0.05
0.8
0.5
(mm3/N m)
basalt fabric composite, its friction coefcient and wear rate decreased remarkably with the increase of load. When nano-SiO2
and graphite were added simultaneously, the friction coefcient
and wear rate of the composites were further decreased and varied
with the load at the same manner of BFC/Gr composites. With the
increase of applied load, adhesive wear took a dominant place,
which was generally less dangerous for polymer composite sliding
surface. The transfer lms on the counterpart surface may be of
higher quality at higher load compared to that formed at lower
load. With the formation of higher quality transfer lms, the plowing and scufng will be abated, and the tribological behavior was
improved. Besides, the forming rate of transfer lms may be enhanced at higher load, which can shorten the running-in period
and is favorable for improving the tribological properties of polymer composites [26]. With further increase of applied load, the
newly formed wear debris would come into being a more integrated but thinner layer on the worn surface, which played an
important role in improving the tribological properties.
Based on the above experimental results, the BFC/Gr/SiO2 composites were chosen to study the effects of sliding speed on the tribological properties of BFC composites further. Table 3 presents
the friction coefcient and wear rate of the BFC/Gr/SiO2 composites
under low speed (0.431 m/s) and high speed (0.862 m/s). It is
clearly seen that the composites registered lower friction coefcient and wear rate under high sliding speed than low speed. At
high sliding speed, there was not enough time to produce more
adhesive points owing to the decreased surface contact time. As
a result, the friction force component from adhesion can be greatly
reduced and the transfer lm can easily form and difcult to rup-
Fig. 5. SEM fracture micrograph of different basalt fabric composites: (a) pure BFC; (b) BFC/SiO2; (c) BFC/Gr and (d) BFC/Gr/SiO2.
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Fig. 6. SEM morphologies of the worn surface and transfer lm of the basalt fabric composites: (a) pure BFC; (b) BFC/SiO2; (c) BFC/Gr; (d) BFC/Gr/SiO2; (e) transfer lm of (a);
(f) transfer lm of (b); (g) transfer lm of (c) and (h) transfer lm of (d).
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out was evident and the debonding between the ber and matrix
also existed in the fractured surface of pure BFC (Fig. 5a), which
indicated that the interface bonding between basalt bers and phenolic matrix was poor. In the case of BFC/SiO2 composites, the fractured surface was characterized by brittle fracture and little ber
pulling-out can be seen, which indicated that the addition of
nano-SiO2 improved the adhesion between the ber and matrix
(Fig. 5b). For BFC/Gr composites, the addition of graphite toughened the phenolic matrix to some extent compared with pure
BFC, but there was still some phenomenon of ber pulling out in
the fractured surface (Fig. 5c). In the case of BFC/Gr/SiO2 composites, rough fractured surface with little ber pulling-out was seen,
in which the gaps between the brittlely fractured bers were lled
with phenolic matrix (Fig. 5d). This can be explained by the synergistic effect of nanoparticles and solid lubricants. The addition of
nano-SiO2 not only enhanced the interaction between the phenolic
matrix, but also enhanced the interaction between graphite and
phenolic matrix. It is clear that the bermatrix bonding was
strengthened when graphite and SiO2 were incorporated together,
which denitely played an important role in improving the tribological properties of the fabric composites.
Fig. 6 shows the SEM morphologies of the worn surface and
transfer lms of the basalt fabric composites sliding against the
GCr15 steel at a sliding speed of 0.431 m/s under 200 N. It is seen
that a few basalt bers were pulled out and cut from the pure basalt fabric composites, which resulted in a slight abrasive wear
(Fig. 6a). In this case, a large amount of transferred wear debris
were observed on the counterpart surface and the transfer lm
was discontinuous (Fig. 6e), which corresponded to a high friction
coefcient and wear rate for pure BFC. In contrast, the worn surface of the lled basalt fabric composites appeared to be completely different. For BFC/SiO2 composites, the worn surface was
relatively rough, although the ber pulling-out was slightly abated (Fig. 6b). Meanwhile, the transfer lm on the corresponding
counterpart surface was thick but not uniform (Fig. 6f), which
indicated that abrasive wear took a dominant place. So, the single
incorporation of nano-SiO2 contributed to improve the wear resistance of the fabric composites to a relatively low extent. Differently from the above, the worn surfaces of BFC/Gr and BFC/Gr/
SiO2 composites were smoother with less ber damage seen
(Fig. 6c and d). Meanwhile, the corresponding transfer lms became thinner and comparatively more homogeneous (Fig. 6g
and h). In particular, the worn surface of BFC/Gr/SiO2 was the
smoothest and little signs of basalt bers damage were seen
(Fig. 6d), which conformed to its best wear-resistance. Under a
xed load of 200 N, when the sliding speed increased to
0.862 m/s, there appeared more integrated wear debris oriented
along the sliding direction on the worn surface of BFC/Gr/SiO2
owing to the effect of thermal softening caused by frictional heat
(Fig. 7a). In the case of BFC/Gr/SiO2 sliding at 600 N and 0.431 m/
s, an integrated wear debris layer appeared on the worn surface
(Fig. 7b). When the applied load was increased, some big particle-shaped or aky debris in the worn surface would be crushed
or sheared into smaller particles or thinner akes and acted as
lubricants. At the same time, the newly formed debris would
come into being a more integrated layer on the worn surface
and reduced the direct contact between the fabric composite
and the counterpart [29]. As can be seen in this study, the transfer lms of BFC/Gr/SiO2 composites sliding under high sliding
speed and load (Fig. 7c and d) were relatively thinner, continuous
and more coherent. With the formation of the relative uniform
and coherent transfer lm, subsequent sliding occurred between
the surface of BFC/Gr/SiO2 composites and the transfer lms. Consequently, a lower friction coefcient and wear rate was reached.
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the support provided by National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50805139), the
Innovative Group Foundation from NSFC (Grant No. 50721062),
and important direction project for the knowledge innovative engineering of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No.KGCX3-SYW205).
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