Effect of Asperity-Scale Tensile Stresses on the Wear Behavior of Normally Oriented Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites©

Abstract

Wear of unidirectional continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composites with fiber orientation normal to the contact plane, sliding over scribed stainless steel disks having a controlled surface topography, is investigated in relation to the tensile stresses developed near the contact region. The composite is modeled as a transversely isotropic half-space whose effective elastic moduli are estimated from composite micro-mechanical considerations. The scribed disk is treated as a rough surface whose controlled topographical features serve as model hemispherical indenters against the composite. With friction coefficients obtained from, the wear experiments, the tensile stress field at and below the composite surface is estimated. From this, an estimate of the theoretical depth of fiber-matrix separation (fiber debonding) is calculated based on the composite transverse tensile strength. A correlation between the wear rate and theoretical depth of debonding was shown for several composites. Presented at the 48t...