Aging and tribological behavior of styrene butadiene rubber conveyor belts under combined seawater dry-wet conditions

Abstract

In this study, the aging and tribological behaviors of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) conveyor belts exposed to seawater dry–wet cycles were investigated. Using hardness as a measure of the aging performance, the worst seawater dry-wet (W-SDW ) cycle conditions were selected using an orthogonal design method, the study was conducted based on such conditions. The changes in SBR surface properties and tribological properties with aging time before and after aging and the degree were investigated by using a hardness tester, SEM, EDS, etc. The performance degradation, microscopic morphological changes of wear surface, and evolutionary behavior of wear mechanism of styrene-butadiene rubber conveyor belt after aging by dry and wet cycles of seawater were discussed. The results show that the most severe combination of wet-dry cycles of seawater for the aging of SBR conveyor belts comprised a soak temperature of 45 °C, soak time of 12 h, drying temperature of 100 °C, and drying time of 9 h. The total surface discoloration of the conveyor belt increases as the number of W-SDW cycles increases, along with the hardness. The friction coefficient of the belt increases with increasing load and decreases with the increasing number of W-SDW cycles. The mass loss increases gradually with the number of W-SDW cycles and load. The wear mechanism gradually changes from fatigue wear to the damage mechanism of coexistence of adhesive wear and fatigue.