Friction and Wear Properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

Abstract

The friction and wear properties of carbon fibers (CF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composite were studied. The influences of the fiber volume fraction, load applied, rotating speed, and wear mechanism were discussed. The results indicated that CF/PP composite had better tribological properties than pure PP. The friction coefficient and wear mass loss decreased with the fiber volume fraction increased, but increased as the load and rotating speed increased, respectively. CF reduced direct contact between the matrix and counterpart and improved the wear resistance of CF/PP composite greatly. The wear displayed a linear evolution in all the range of load. Surfaces after wear tests were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).