Investigation of wear resistance for variable configurations of woven glass-fiber reinforced composite materials

Glass fiber composites are widely used in different engineering applications due to their valuable properties of superior weight and strength compared with metals. The tribological properties of these composites vary significantly with the operational conditions and fiber distribution. In this study three orthogonally aligned and chopped fibers were used to manufacture four types of composites with similar volume fraction. The orthogonal (woven) fibers have three different configurations with different width of warp and weft and different aligning distance. Weight loss under dry contact was examined using a tribometer (ASTM G65) with a flat specimen on a steel ring. This study showed that for the composite with the thinnest warps and wefts, and those with the largest distance between adjacent yarns, Archard wear coefficient was the lowest and this also corresponded the lowest weight or volume loss at all speeds. It was found that toughness can specify the wear resistance more than hardness. Only the composite with chopped glass fiber showed a steady wear rate with sliding speed, while the wear rate for the composite with woven fibers increases with sliding speed. The wear mechanism was mainly by the formation and removal of a brittle layer that appeared as a result of friction heat, and this caused partial cutting and removal of the fibers. The penetration of resin into the woven matrix is more important for higher wear resistance than the density of the yarns in the woven fibers.