Analysis on Abrasive Wear Rate of VGCF/Polyamide 6 Composite Fibers

Abstract

The tribological properties under abrasive wear conditions, the tensile properties, the thermal properties and the structure have been investigated on the polyamide 6 (PA6) fibers dispersed with vapor-grown carbon fibers (VGCF’s) in order to analyze the effects of dispersing VGCF’s on the wear resistance of PA6 fibers. The wear resistance of the fibers have been determined using a method previously proposed by the present authors. The coefficient of friction decreased by dispersing a small amount of VGCF’s but increased with increasing VGCF fraction at large VGCF fractions. The wear resistance increased with increasing VGCF fraction. Under the experimental conditions adopted in this study, the dispersion of VGCF’s more effectively increased the wear resistance of PA6 fibers than the heat treatment. These experimental results have been analyzed based on a model with which the coefficient of friction (μ) and the wear rate (Ws) have been related to the microhardness (H), the resistance against sliding (σs), the fracture probability (f) the shape factor (g) and a constant (k) as μ = gσs/(kH) and Ws = gf/(kH).

Keywords

• abrasive wear
• wear rate
• coefficient of friction
• polyamide 6
• vgcf
• fiber
• composite