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Tribological Behaviors of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites Under PAO Lubrication Conditions

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Abstract

In order to avoid occurrence of severe seizure of motion components exposed to mixed and boundary lubrication, e.g., in engine and transmission systems, to replace metal–metal friction pairs by polymer–metal pairs provides a potential solution. In the present work, the tribological behaviors of short carbon fiber (SCF)-reinforced epoxy (EP) composites when lubricated with polyalphaolefin base oil were investigated. It was identified that the running-in tendency and friction coefficient of the composites show a close dependence on the lubrication regimes. SCF improves greatly the wear resistance of EP although they increase slightly the friction coefficient. It was demonstrated that further addition of monodispersed SiO2 nanoparticles into the EP composite filled with SCF and graphite leads to higher wear resistance. The reinforcement of SCF and the formation of a high-performance tribofilm on the surface of steel counterpart play an important role on the tribological properties of EP-based materials.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support by National Natural Science Foundations of China (Grant No. 51475446) and Chinese “Thousand Youth Talents Plan” Project. Thanks to the Lanzhou University for SEM imaging and EDX analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

    Fuyan Zhao, Chuanping Gao, Honggang Wang, Tingmei Wang, Ga Zhang & Qihua Wang

  2. Institute for Composite Materials (IVW), University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Bernd Wetzel & Bai-Cheng Jim

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  1. Fuyan Zhao
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  2. Chuanping Gao
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  7. Ga Zhang
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Correspondence to Ga Zhang.

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Zhao, F., Gao, C., Wang, H. et al. Tribological Behaviors of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites Under PAO Lubrication Conditions. Tribol Lett 62, 37 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-016-0685-8

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