ANALYSIS OF ABRASIVE WEAR AND FRICTION BEHAVIOR OF COMPOSITES

A method of analysing the wear and friction properties of multiphase m aterials and composites in abrasion is described. The method is based on the pressure distribution between the phases in the contact zone. F rom wear and friction measurements, pressure distribution mode coeffic ients carl be calculated. These give information about how the applied load is distributed between the phases, and thus describe the contrib ution of each phase to the overall tribological properties of a compos ite or multiphase material. The importance of the pressure distributio n in the contact area, and its effect on wear and friction properties are discussed in detail. The technique described can be used to estima te upper and lower bounds for the weal and friction properties of a mu ltiphase material from the tribological properties of the individual p hases. It can also be used to predict whether a phase contributes opti mally to the tribological properties of a composite when exposed in a specific tribosystem. The theoretical considerations are compared with experimental results obtained from aluminium matrix composites contai ning silicon carbide particulate reinforcements. The weal resistance a nd friction of the composites have been measured for several abrasive counterfaces and loads, and mode coefficients have been calculated in order to interpret the experimental results. (C) 1996 The Institute of Materials.