Experimental study of aluminum-polytetraflouroethylene functionally graded materials tribological properties

The current work aims to experimentally investigate the sliding wear characteristics of three, four, and fivelayer PTFE-Al functionally graded materials (FGMs).FGMs with different layers of (75-25, 50-50, 25-75, and 0-100) wt.% Aluminium and PTFE have been synthesized using the powder compaction technique.The tribological properties of such materials are investigated using a Pin-on-disc wear test machine with three process parameters: applied loads (1, 3, and 5) N, rotational speeds (100, 250, and 450) rpm, and sliding times (5, 10, and 15) minutes.The obtained results show that the wear rate of the PTFE can be mitigated with the existence of the Al.However, it increases with the applied load, sliding distance, and rubbing velocities.It was also noted that the wear rate of the different layers decreases as the weight fraction of Aluminium increases due to the increase of the material hardness.Scanning electron microscope (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) is used to analyse the worn surfaces.The SEM with EDS analysis showed that the predominant wear of the different functionally graded materials and their layers is an abrasive as a result of the wear debris and score formation.