Influence of Non-smooth Surface on Tribological Properties of Glass Fiber-epoxy Resin Composite Sliding against Stainless Steel under Natural Seawater Lubrication

With the development of bionics, the bionic non-smooth surfaces are introduced to the field of tribology. Although non-smooth surface has been studied widely, the studies of non-smooth surface under the natural seawater lubrication are still very fewer, especially experimental research. The influences of smooth and non-smooth surface on the frictional properties of the glass fiber-epoxy resin composite（GF/EPR） coupled with stainless steel 316 L are investigated under natural seawater lubrication in this paper. The tested non-smooth surfaces include the surfaces with semi-spherical pits, the conical pits, the cone-cylinder combined pits, the cylindrical pits and through holes. The friction and wear tests are performed using a ring-on-disc test rig under 60 N load and 1000 r/min rotational speed. The tests results show that GF/EPR with bionic non-smooth surface has quite lower friction coefficient and better wear resistance than GF/EPR with smooth surface without pits. The average friction coefficient of GF/EPR with semi-spherical pits is 0.088, which shows the largest reduction is approximately 63.18% of GF/EPR with smooth surface. In addition, the wear debris on the worn surfaces of GF/EPR are observed by a confocal scanning laser microscope. It is shown that the primary wear mechanism is the abrasive wear. The research results provide some design parameters for non-smooth surface, and the experiment results can serve as a beneficial supplement to non-smooth surface study.

Experimental Study on Influence of Dimples on Lubrication Performance of Glass Fiber-epoxy Resin Composite under Natural Seawater Lubrication

Bionic non-smooth surface is widely applied in metal and ceramics materials. In order to introduce this technology to high pressure seawater pump, the influence of bionic non-smooth surface on the engineering plastics used in pump should be investigated. The comparative tests are carried out with a ring-on-disc configuration under 800, 1000, 1200 and 1400 r/min in order to research the influence of the bionic non-smooth surface on glass fiber-epoxy resin composite（GF/EPR） under natural seawater lubrication. The disc surfaces are textured with five kinds of pits, which are semi-spherical, conical, cone-cylinder combined, cylindrical pits and through holes, respectively. A smooth surface is tested as reference. The results show that the lubrication performance of dimpled GF/EPR sample is much better than that of the smooth sample under all rotational speeds. The semi-spherical pits surface has more obvious friction reduction than the others, which shows that the least reduction is approximately 43.29% of smooth surface under 1200 r/rain. However, the wear level is only marginally influenced by dimples. The surface morphology investigations disclose severe modifications caused by abrasive wear primarily. The results are helpful to vary friction properties of GF/EPR by non-smooth surface, or provide references to the design of non-smooth surfaces under certain condition.

Combined effect of the use of carbon fiber and seawater and the molecular structure on the tribological behavior of polymer materials

The combined effect of the use of carbon fiber and seawater and the molecular structure on the tribological behavior of various polymer materials under natural seawater lubrication was investigated. After the investigation, the wear morphology of the contact surface was observed by a laser scanning confocal microscope, and the texture of the wear scars and tracks were presented in 3 D profiles. Moreover, the mechanism of mixed lubrication and wear resistance was analyzed. The results demonstrated that the friction coefficient of carbon fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone(CFRPEEK) is the lowest and fluctuates at approximately 0.11. Moreover, the seven polymer materials in ascending order of friction coefficients are CFRPEEK, carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide-imide, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyoxymethylene, polyetheretherketone(PEEK), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin, and glass fiber–epoxy resin. More critically, the simultaneous incorporation of deposition, polymeric scrap, hydrophilic groups, and seawater resulted in a decrease in the friction and wear of polymer materials under seawater lubrication. This observation implies that a synergistic friction-reducing and wear-resistant effect exists between carbon fiber, seawater, and the molecular structure of PEEK. As a result, a highly effective polymer material was discovered, CFRPEEK, which has the lowest friction coefficient of 0.11 and lowest wear rate of 2 × 10^(–5) mm^3?(N?m)^(-1) among the polymer materials; this validates the selection of dual friction pairs for seawater hydraulic components.