Experimental and statistical evaluation of wear and friction behaviour on AA 7475/GFRP multi-stacked fibre metal laminates

Abstract

Fibre metal laminates (FMLs) are used to make lugs and cargo doors in the aviation industry. In both the assembly and service of aircraft, friction and wear are unavoidable. This paper explores the experimental and statistical evaluation of wear and friction response of multi-stacked glass laminate aluminum reinforced epoxy (GLARE) under dry sliding conditions. Testing was conducted by a pin on disc machine with four parameters namely specimen condition, contact pressure, sliding velocity, and sliding distance. Material heterogeneity is a factor that is supposed to improve the damping of the hybrid system. The design of experiment (DOE) reveals that specimen condition significantly promotes wear and friction. On the other hand, sliding velocity did not effectively contribute to loading the hybrid towards the dry slide. The best specimen condition for wear was C2, with contact pressure of 50 MPa, sliding velocity of 1 m/s, and sliding distance of 3000 m. For friction, best specimen condition C3, with contact pressure 100 MPa, sliding velocity 1 m/s, and sliding distance 1000 m. Scanning electron microscopy was also used to investigate the wear mechanisms on the worn surface. A linear regression model shows a 98% correlation of experimental with predicted values.