Experimental Study of Fiber Orientation Effect on Frictional Material Properties and Tribology Performance

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the fiber orientation effect on frictional material properties and tribology performance. Effects of orientation on hardness, maximum load capacity under bending, the friction coefficient and surface wear of the composites were investigated. In this research, 3D printing technique was used to create workpieces in order to control fiber arrangement which is random, 0, 45, and 90 degrees. The results suggested that the fiber direction insignificantly affects material hardness with all specimen showing similar value of average hardness of approx. 90 HRC. However, the fiber orientation had a strong influence on material bending strength. The specimen with forced fiber orientation showed lower bending resistance compared to that with random fiber orientation. This may be caused by the non-uniform distribution of fiber which could promote fracture initiation site in some area with low fiber density. The coefficient of friction of the composite material was found to strongly related to it wear behavior, i.e. higher wear rate results in higher value of friction coefficient. The wear resistance was found to be controlled by both the fiber direction and fiber interface. With fiber oriented at 90 degree to sliding direction, higher coefficient was observed. However, as surface wear took place, the effect of wear debris results in an increase in friction coefficient. For 3D printed specimen, wear was increased with fiber interface density resulting in higher wear rate of specimen with 0-degree fiber orientation compared to those with 45-and 90-degree orientation during. Hence, the specimen with 0 degree fiber direction showed similar value of coefficient of friction to those with random and 90 degree fiber orientation.