Tribological Behaviour of C-Derived Si3N4 Nanocomposites

Abstract

The main topic of the current work consists in analysing the tribological behaviour of graphite reinforced Si3N4 nanocomposites. The basic aim was to investigate the influence of microstructural features, i.e. amount and grain size of the added reinforcing graphite, as well as the effect of applied load on the wearing characteristics like wearing profile, wear rate, friction coefficient or mechanism of the wear damage process. Tribological tests were performed on a pinon- disc tribometer with on-line measurement of friction coefficient and the wear profile. Wear tests were completed with traditional micro-hardness and instrumented hardness tests, furthermore fractographical analyses of the wear tracks using scanning electron microscopy.