Determination of Wear, Friction Behavior and Characterization of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites for Transport Applications

Abstract Thermoplastics are finding the place in the current industrial sector due to its load bearing capacities. In this research, With the aid of pin on disc test set up, adhesive and abrasive wear behavior of leaf spring materials 30% short carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (SF), 30% long carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (LF) as well as Unreinforced epoxy (UF) are evaluated for automobile applications. Under multi pass abrasive wear condition, the effect of fiber reinforcement on plastic energy of deformation, matrix crystallinity and clogging behavior were investigated. The transient friction of Leaf spring materials was carried out under the load condition of 19.62N and 28.43N. During the friction test, the effect of fiber length, fiber loading condition on the co-efficient of friction and its specific wear rate of the composite materials are also investigated. The increase in load during adhesive mode for all the materials, specific wear rate and wear volume of the test materials also increased. Furthermore, the fiber- matrix interface, fractured surfaces were observed thoroughly through Scanning Electron microscopic (SEM) morphology.